To help machines discover the metadata resources pertaining to a scholarly object, use the describedby link relation type to link from the object's landing page to a URI where metadata for the object is accessible.

To help machines that landed on a metadata resource pertaining to a scholarly object discover its landing page, use the describes link relation type (the inverse of describedby) to link from the metadata resource to the landing page.

For both describedby and describes links:

• The type attribute is used to express the media type of the resource that is the target of the link; see Conventions and Bibliographic Metadata Formats for further details.
• The profile attribute is used to provide further details regarding the profile of the media type of the linked resource; see Conventions and Bibliographic Metadata Formats for further details.

The below examples illustrate the use of describedby and describes links in HTTP Link headers. describedby links can also be provided in a landing page's HTML link element and/or in a Link Set that is discoverable from the landing page. However, since most metadata resources are not HTML, describes links can typically only be provided in the HTTP Link header of metadata resources and/or in a Link Set that is discoverable from the metadata resource.

• Landing Page ➞ Metadata Resources

  A typical landing page for a scholarly object links to metadata resources in various formats.
  Example 1 » Example 2 » Example 3 »

• Landing Page (which is a Content Resource) ➞ Metadata Resources

  Sometimes a landing page for a scholarly object is an HTML rendering of an article. It can still link to metadata that describes the scholarly object in various formats.
  Example »