BibliographicCitation

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Note: Summary of best practices added. Jenn Riley 10/12/05

[edit] Bibliographic Citation

[edit] Summary of Best Practices

• Provide a bibliographic citation either to identify the work described in a metadata record or to reference a related work.
• Format the bibliographic citation using standards applied in your community of practice.

There are two common instances where a metadata record might include a bibliographic citation.

• As an identifier to the work itself
• As a reference to another work (which may indicate the place of a work in a hierarchy or may be an unspecified relationship)

Identifying the work itself:

In Dublin Core, there is an element refinement called BibliographicCitation, which refines the Identifier element. When attempting to include a citation to the described work itself, the citation should be in either the BibliographicCitation refinement or the Identifier element, depending on whether the record is Simple or Qualified Dublin Core. For instance, if the resource is an article for a journal, it is appropriate to include very specific information about the article, even page references, if such information is used to cite the article in a standard format for reference by other resources, even if the article being described is in a digital format.

Because DC elements and refinements are repeatable, it is perfectly possible to have an URL and a bibliographic citation in the same record, each in a distinct Identifier element.

Examples in Qualified Dublin Core:

    <dcterms:bibliographicCitation>ESOP, v.2, no. 1, Apr. 2003, p. 5-8<dcterms:bibliographicCitation>
    <dcterms:bibliographicCitation>Nature, v.87, p. 200<dcterms:bibliographicCitation>

Identifying related works:

Bibliographic citations to related works should be in Relation elements, or the appropriate refinement for Relation if the record is Qualified Dublin Core. When including a citation to a higher level in a hierarchy, make sure the citation is only to that level. For instance, when the citation is to a journal in which the article appeared, the citation may not include the entire citation to the article (though it may cite to the issue).

Examples in Qualified Dublin Core:

    <dcterms:isPartOf>ESOP, v.2, no. 1, Apr. 2003</dcterms:isPartOf>
    <dcterms:references>Nature, v.87, p. 200<dcterms:references>

Format of Bibliographic Citations:

In all cases, best practice is to use a standard citation format, appropriate to the community that will be using the information. Usage of particular citation formats can be documented at the repository or set level--it is not possible to document at the element level. See Providing Supplemental Information to Service Providers for further discussion.