Means of limiting # of entries users place in metadata fields?

[Carolyn Sullivan]

Hello all,

Some of our submitters have been overzealous in creating metadata, with the result that we sometimes end up with 30+ subject keywords attached to a submission.  Is there any technological means to restrict the number of metadata entries a user can create?  In the DCAT meeting today, other schools reported using manual oversight and policy solutions to deal with the issue, but automated control over the field could save folks some time.

Let me know if there's an out-of-box or custom solution for this... if not, I'll go ahead and make a Github issue to request this feature.

Best,

Carolyn.

[DSpace Technical Support]

Hi Carolyn,

I'm not aware of an existing way to limit the number of dc.subject (or other repeatable metadata fields) in that way; referencing current documentation for customizing fields in the submission form.  

Thanks for raising though, and that sounds like a reasonable feature request issue if you'd like to submit it on Github!

Best,

Lia

[C S]

Thanks, Lia--I was half-hoping some random programmer we've never heard of would pipe up in this forum with a some custom solution we didn't know about that we could easily port into the default code 😅   Okay, I'll do as you recommended during the DCAT meeting Tuesday... though if there is a random programmer with a solution reading this, feel free to let us know about it, lol.

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[Carolyn Sullivan]

Done: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/issues/12307

[mw...@iu.edu]

> On Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 2:46:25 PM UTC-4 Carolyn Sullivan wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Some of our submitters have been overzealous in creating metadata, with the result that we sometimes end up with 30+ subject keywords attached to a submission. Is there any technological means to restrict the number of metadata entries a user can create? In the DCAT meeting today, other schools reported using manual oversight and policy solutions to deal with the issue, but automated control over the field could save folks some time.

Sorry, but I'm curious: why is this a problem?

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Mark H. Wood
Lead Technology Analyst

University Library
Indiana University Indianapolis
755 W. Michigan Street
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library.indianapolis.iu.edu

ORCiD: 0000-0002-9558-3768

[Carolyn Sullivan]

It's a problem because when we export our theses to Primo, the end-user sometimes has to scroll for like five minutes to reach the abstract in the brief record because someone added 150 subject keywords to their thesis.  Also... the usefulness of subject keywords in identifying the content of a resource tends to decrease with an increase in the number of keywords submitters can apply.  If people are limited to ten keywords, they're likely to choose much more specific and relevant terms identifying the content of their thesis than if they're choosing 150.  Bram Luyten also commented that you're likely to experience performance degradation if you exceed 100 or so entries per metadata field for a resource: https://groups.google.com/g/dspace-community/c/DYv7-ZOI5NE/m/uF1bt557AgAJ

Hope that clarifies!