bibTeX Definition in Web Ontology Language (OWL) Version 0.1

1 Introduction and (Short) History

Markup and organization of bibliographic entries is vital for smooth functioning in any work that requires careful documentation of sources. While there exist many commercial and non-commercial solutions, one of the simplest and most widespread is bibTeX[bibtex]. This format is simple but complete, easy to use but powerful. The following is an example:

@article{Gettys90,
   author = {Jim Gettys and Phil Karlton and Scott McGregor},
   title = {The {X} Window System, Version 11},
   journal = {Software Practice and Experience},
   volume = {20},
   number = {S2},
   year = {1990},
   abstract = {A technical overview of the X11 functionality.  This is an update
of the X10 TOG paper by Scheifler \& Gettys.}
}

bibTeX easily fits into the OWL way of describing the world with classes and properties. In the past, others had marked up bibTeX in the predecessor of OWL, DAML+OIL[damloil], one of which was created by the USC Information Sciences Institute[uscbibtex]. However, there has not been, as of yet, a markup of bibTeX in OWL.

This document serves as the definition of bibTeX in owl and outlines some common examples. In all likelihood, there will be extensions and modifications to the OWL definition in the future to accommodate desired changes. The goal is for this (and the subsequent modifications) to become the standard way of marking up bibliographic data in the semantic web.

2 Namespace and Prefix

3 Classes and Properties

Nearly all of the classes and properties come directly from the bibTeX format document[bibtex]. There are a few additional properties and classes, some added to help organize bibTeX cardinality restrictions, others for ease-of-use. To reiterate, the classes and properties are subject to change!

4 Examples

The original bibTeX example, shown above, cast as RDF using this ontology:

<bibtex:Article rdf:ID="Gettys90">
	<bibtex:hasKey rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">Gettys90</bibtex:hasKey>
	<bibtex:hasTitle rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">The X Window System, Version 11</bibtex:hasTitle>
	<bibtex:hasJournal rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">Software Practice and Experience</bibtex:hasJournal>
	<bibtex:hasVolume rdf:datatype="&xsd;nonNegativeInteger">20</bibtex:hasVolume>
	<bibtex:hasNumber rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">S2</bibtex:hasNumber>
	<bibtex:hasYear rdf:datatype="&string">1990</bibtex:hasYear>
	<bibtex:hasAbstract rdf:datatype="&xsd;string">A technical overview of the X11 functionality.  This is an update
of the X10 TOG paper by Scheifler & Gettys.</bibtex:hasAbstract>
</bibtex:Article>

			

5 Acknowledgements

Thanks go to the people on the #rdfig IRC channel and members of the rdfweb-dev mailing list for help and comments. Thanks also go to Oren Patashnik and Leslie Lamport for creating bibTeX and Dana Jacobsen for the excellent bibTeX webpage summary.

6 References

bibtex

bibTeX Format Description

damloil

DAML+OIL Specification

uscbibtex

USC Information Sciences Institute