This document discusses various methods for embedding references in web documents, including DOIs, COinS, OpenURL, microformats, JSON, RDF, RDFa, and HTML meta tags. It provides examples of embedding references using these methods by including code snippets and screenshots from example references on web pages and in documents. The document is authored by Owen Stephens for the TELSTAR project and aims to explore simple and interoperable ways of including references on the web.
1 of 34
Downloaded 17 times
More Related Content
References on the web
1. References on the web
Owen Stephens
Project Manager: TELSTAR
21st June 2010
5. Scholarly HTML
http://ptsefton.com/2009/03/31/scholarly-html.htm
Dead simple reference
management via links to
trusted sources
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
6. Scholarly HTML
http://ptsefton.com/2009/03/31/scholarly-html.htm
just use a DOI the
publisher can be
responsible to fetching the
metadata and making a
bibliography.
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
7. Scholarly HTML
http://ptsefton.com/2009/03/31/scholarly-html.htm
let the user choose the
referencing style and
select it on the fly
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
8. Scholarly HTML
http://ptsefton.com/2009/03/31/scholarly-html.htm
let readers import the
references into their own
libraries
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
19. var publist = [
{"refid":"1","articletype":"article",
"title":"Storage of electrons and holes
in self-assembled InAs quantum
dots","year":"1999","author":"M. C.
Bodefeld, R. J. Warburton, K. Karrai,
J. P. Kotthaus, G. Medeiros-Ribeiro and
P. M. Petroff",
"journal":"APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS,
"volume":"74","number":"4"}]
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
32. <div typeof="foaf:Document">
<dl>
<dd class="Pub"> <span class="Title"
property="dc:title">Conceptual Framework for
Recommendation System Based on Distributed
User Ratings</span><br />
<span class="Author" property="dc:creator">H.
J. Kim and J. J. Jung and G. S. Jo</
span><br />
<span class="Journal">LECTURE NOTES IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE</span>  
<span class="Volume"></span>  
<span class="Pages">115--122</span>
 
(<span class="Date" property="dc:date">2004
</span>)<br />
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
34. Look out for
HTML META tags
Wikipedia templates
Twitter Annotations
www.open.ac.uk/telstar/
Editor's Notes
ISBN; ISSN; DOI; URI - unique identifier
Pros
No special skills for authors
Clarity
Full descriptions can be held in appropriate systems
No messy stuff in the HTML
Cons
Some Identifiers are not perfect
Not all items have identifiers (although this can be
Not all identifiers &#x2018;resolvable&#x2019;
Error prone
OpenURL general framework
However, only real use is for (mainly) bibliographic material &#x2013; books, chapters, articles
Was originally introduced because of &#x2018;appropriate copy&#x2019; problem
OpenURLs made up of &#x2018;resolver address&#x2019; and context object. Works well in dynamic page with user context (e.g. bib database) but not so well on open web
Hence COinS &#x2013; Context Object in Span
Pros:
Well established in libraries, already used by Zotero and others to extract metadata
Metadata in the page &#x2013; stands alone
Links into resolvers
Doesn&#x2019;t require identifier, but can exploit them if they are available
Backwards compatible &#x2013; wide range of browsers
Cons:
Someone has to create the COinS
Lack of takeup outside library sector
OpenURL is long and ugly standard &#x2013; tends to be disliked by implementers!
Summary of Microformats &#x2013; way of embedding structured data into web pages
Microformats &#x2013; build on existing standards to enable you to embed &#x2018;semantics&#x2019; into XHTML
Specifically hCard and hCalendar have proved popular
Example http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/sessions/kelly/
Pros
Combine human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; no duplication
Metadata in the page &#x2013; stands alone
Doesn&#x2019;t require identifier
Backwards compatible to any XHTML
Cons:
Mixes human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; leads to confusion, and more complex data structures
Lack of take-up of microformats excepting hCard and hCalendar
Possible accessibility issues (re BBC decision to drop hCalendar)
No &#x2018;use case&#x2019; (unlike COinS)
As far as I know not consumed by existing tools (e.g. Zotero)
Pros
Combine human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; no duplication
Metadata in the page &#x2013; stands alone
Doesn&#x2019;t require identifier
Backwards compatible to any XHTML
Cons:
Mixes human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; leads to confusion, and more complex data structures
Lack of take-up of microformats excepting hCard and hCalendar - is hCitation going anywhere?
Possible accessibility issues (re BBC decision to drop hCalendar)
No &#x2018;use case&#x2019; (unlike COinS)
As far as I know not consumed by existing tools (e.g. Zotero)
Pros:
(seen as) simple
in-line styling
Separates display elements from data
CSL
Cons:
Essentially a variation on use of identifier
No well-established schema
Not a single type of data
RDF is &#x2018;Resource Description Framework&#x2019;
RDFa &#x2013; RDF in attributes
Enables you to embed RDF statements into web pages
Pros
Combine human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; no duplication
Metadata in the page &#x2013; stands alone
Doesn&#x2019;t require identifier
Growing number of tools that can extract RDFa &#x2013; Zotero working on it?
Part of growing &#x2018;linked data&#x2019; movement
Cons:
Mixes human readable and computer readable versions of data &#x2013; leads to confusion, and more complex data structures
No widespread takeup yet &#x2013; although some significant uses (e.g. O&#x2019;Reilly)
Requires new doc type = XHTML+RDFa
RDFa &#x2013; RDF in attributes
Enables you to embed RDF statements into web pages
Goes beyond just describing the resource
Describes the way in which it is being used