[uf-discuss] hCite progress

[Jeremy Boggs]

On Nov 13, 2006, at 2:20 PM, Brian Suda wrote:

> But as Bruce said: start-end pages are not really important, just
> capture the string "pages 10-50". So i think something akin to the
> first example here will work.

One reason why a string might not be useful is capturing a citation  
for a specific page of a work versus capturing a citation of a work  
in its entirety. Its one thing to cite a specific quote from page 40  
of an article in a journal, and another to cite an entire article  
that exists on pages 37-65 in a journal.

If I were to quote something specific, or refer to a specific idea or  
statement in a journal article on page 40, I would use some variation  
of the following:

John Doe, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor," _Sit Amet_ vol. 81, no. 3 (2000), 40.

If, however, I would want to refer to the entire article, I would use  
the following:

John Doe, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor," _Sit Amet_ 81, no.3 (2000), 37-65.

I don't see how leaving pages as a simple string can account for this  
difference. I wouldn't want a parser to say that the article is only  
one page long, and that it exists only on page 40 of a journal.  
Granted, neither of these citations, in and of themselves, really  
lets the reader know whether the entire article, or just a portion of  
it, is being cited. In this case, start-end pages are important. I'm  
not really sure offhand how to remedy this, but I'll certainly think  
about it and offer up whatever I come up with. (I've tended to do  
that on this list; raise questions without offering much on  
solutions. My apologies.) Does anyone else have thoughts about this?

Maybe it would be useful to use the include-pattern in hCite?

It seems like it would be helpful to be able to include information  
on a work in a smaller citation. Given the example above, if I were  
to add subsequent citations to cite a different page of the same  
work, I would use something like this:

1. John Doe, "Lorem Ipsum Dolor," _Sit Amet_ vol. 81, no. 3 (2000), 40.
2. Doe, 54.

There are variations on a theme for this, across disciplines and  
citation standards. Would the include-object be useful to include  
specific information from the first citation to be used in the second  
citation? Or more broadly, would the include-object be helpful in  
connecting multiple citations of the same work to the more complete  
bibliographic information of a work?

It also might be useful for the problem I illustrated above, with  
citing on a specific portion of a work versus citing a work in its  
entirety. Maybe use the include-object to include the start-end pages  
of a work, while showing the specific page being cited?

I can come up with some example markup, if it is valid for hCite and  
folks think it would be useful.

Best,
Jeremy