Term used to refer to both ‘Element refinement’ and ‘Encoding schemes’. Use of this term tends to cause confusion, so it is avoided in this document.

a Data Element that gives a generic Segment or a generic Data Element a specific meaning.

Something that describes or characterizes an object. In the case of Dublin Core, a qualifier refines an element's meaning. A qualifier must follow the Dumb-Down Principle. There are two broad categories of qualifiers: Encoding schema and Element refinement.

a Named Element and has a Name, a Type (intrinsic data type), a Value of this type, a Scope, a Flavor and a default Value

In Dublin Core and other metadata schemes, a term that restricts the meaning of an element or identifies the encoding scheme used in representing the value of the element.

A MathML content element that is used to specify the value of a specific named parameter in the application of selected pre-defined functions.

A data element which identifies or defines a related element, set of elements or a segment. The qualifier contains a code taken from a list of approved codes.

A data element whose value shall be expressed as a code that gives specific meaning to the function of another data element or a segment.

a mechanism for refining element semantics or to provide information for understanding element values.

Data element used to identify the type of information that gives a segment or element meaning.