Prefill a Description

When adding a description to a plan, you can choose to prefill it from an external source instead of answering every question manually. Prefilling searches an external database (such as Zenodo, ORCID, or OpenAIRE) and automatically populates your description fields with the retrieved data.

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Prefilling is only available when the plan's blueprint has been configured to support it for the relevant section.

How to Prefill a Description

1. Open a plan and navigate to the section where you want to add a description.
2. Click Add Description. A dialog appears asking how you want to proceed.
3. Select Prefill instead of filling the description manually.
4. Choose a description template — this determines the structure and questions of your description.
5. Choose a prefilling source — this is the external database to search (e.g., Zenodo Datasets, ORCID Researchers).
6. Type a search term (e.g., a dataset title, a DOI, a researcher name) and wait for results to appear.
7. Select a result from the list. The system fetches the full details for that record and maps the values to your description fields.
8. Your description is pre-populated. Review the filled fields, make any corrections, and complete any fields that were not covered by the prefilling source.

How Field Population Works

The prefilling system uses semantics to match data from the external source to the right fields in your description template.

Each question in a description template can have a semantic tag assigned to it by the administrator. Each field in a prefilling source also carries a semantic target. When a semantic in the prefilling source matches the semantic of a template question, that field is automatically populated.

This means that the same prefilling source can work with multiple different description templates — as long as the templates use matching semantics.

Some fields are set directly on the description itself, regardless of the template:

System Field	What It Sets
Label	The description's title
Description	The description's summary
Tags	Tags added to the description

Administrators can also configure fixed value fields that inject a static value into a specific field for every description created via that source (for example, automatically tagging all prefilled descriptions with the source name).

After Prefilling

Prefilling is a starting point — not a final submission. After the description is pre-populated:

• Review all filled fields to ensure accuracy
• Complete any required fields that the prefilling source did not cover
• Edit or override any values that need correction
• Save the description as normal when ready

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You can learn how administrators configure prefilling sources in the Prefilling Sources section.