Harvest Error -- accrualPeriodicity

Harvester Guide Pages

accrualPeriodicity – update frequency format errors

This error affects about 195 records across multiple sources. It occurs when the accrualPeriodicity field contains a plain English description of update frequency instead of the required code format.

What you see

$.accrualPeriodicity, 'Weekly' does not match any of the acceptable formats: constant value 'irregular' was expected, '^R\/P...'

What this means

The accrualPeriodicity field describes how often a dataset is updated. The DCAT-US schema requires this field to use either the literal value irregular or an ISO 8601 duration code in repeating interval format (e.g. R/P1W for weekly). Plain English values like Weekly, Monthly, or No longer updated are not accepted even though they are descriptively correct.

Common rejected values and their correct replacements

• Weekly – use R/P1W
• Monthly – use R/P1M
• Annual or Annually – use R/P1Y
• Annual (R/P1Y) – use R/P1Y (the label alone, no parenthetical)
• Daily – use R/P1D
• Quarterly – use R/P3M
• Semiannual – use R/P6M
• No longer updated – use irregular
• Archived – use irregular
• Never – use irregular
• Not updated – use irregular

For a full list of ISO 8601 duration codes, see the quick reference.

If you can edit your metadata directly

Replace the plain English value with the appropriate code from the list above. If the dataset is no longer being updated for any reason, use irregular.

If you cannot edit the metadata yourself

Contact whoever manages your agency’s metadata publishing system and tell them:

“The accrualPeriodicity field on our datasets needs to use ISO 8601 duration codes instead of plain English descriptions. For example, Weekly should be R/P1W, Monthly should be R/P1M, and Annual should be R/P1Y. Datasets that are no longer updated should use the value irregular. This is causing validation failures on harvest.data.gov.”