[uf-discuss] Citation Straw Proposal II (Recap)

[Bruce D'Arcus]

On 5/4/06, Brian Suda <brian.suda at gmail.com> wrote:

> Author/Editor/Translator should be a priority.
> --- This has been recently explored as possibly using the hcard ROLE
> property. This is a very interesting idea. Basically, since we are
> requiring that "creators" be marked-up as hCards we can use those
> properties in both realms (vCard and Citation). Here is a simple
> example:
>
> <div class="citation">
>   <div class="vcard">
>     <span class="fn">Brian Suda</span>
>     <span class="role">Author</span>
>   </div>
>
>   <div class="vcard">
>     <span class="fn org">XYZ Publishing House</span>
>     <span class="role">Publisher</span>
>   </div>
>   ...
> </div>
>
> The question i am asking myself, is "Does role make sense outside of
> the citation format?" "If i were to extract JUST the vCards is ROLE
> still correct?"

Technically, a role is a relation between an agent and something else;
another agent -- like an organization -- or in this case some
creation. So a role is not property of an agent.

Also, convention is that the only roles that are printed/displayed are
seconday ones like editor and translator, and they are often
abbreviated; e.g. "Jane Doe and John Smith (Eds.)".

> isPartOf seems pretty important
> --- This one has got me thinking as well, and i'm interested in other
> peoples' feedback. Since "Format" was incorrect, isPartOf is what i
> intended. "This citation is part of a Book", etc. I am also wondering
> if a sort of nested citation is a good idea or not? vCard has an AGENT
> property, which is a vCard inside a vCard. We might be able to do the
> same for a Citation.
>
> A given article citation is part of a journal (which is just another
> citation). The problem is that they would share ALOT of the same info
> (PubDate, Publisher, etc) It would be difficult to publish an article
> in a journal by two different publishers? (or i am off the mark here?)
> So i'm not sure how much benefit there is in nesting citations.

You see the benefit even in really simple examples like chapters in
edited collections. The chapter author is a creator on the main level,
while the editor is attached to the container.

> OUTSTANDING ISSUES:
> URL/UID
> the use of urls as IDs, and the use of additional protocols, such as
> ISBN, urn:, etc.
>
> Retrieved Date or Access Date
> this was first brought-up in the straw example discussion, so the new
> examples need to be folded into the schema. Can someone do a write-up
> of WHAT IS ACCESS DATE and how it differs and why it is important.

I'm in a hurry, but say you cite a New York Times article online. In
academic citation, you MUST include the acces date, in part because if
someone tries to access it three years later, it probabaly won't be
accesible.

Bruce