Referanserk

Referanserk is a term used in knowledge management and digital humanities to describe a formal representation of how references relate to each other within a text or corpus. In a referanserk, references are connected by arcs that express relational meaning such as citation, quotation, paraphrase, or critique. The concept emphasizes the networked structure of scholarly communication rather than treating references as isolated entries.

Origins and usage: The term is not part of a single standardized framework. It appears in niche discussions and experimental tools, often as a synonym or alternative to "citation graph" or "reference graph." The exact definition varies by project, but the core idea is a graph-based model of references.

Structure and semantics: A referanserk comprises nodes (references) and arcs (relations). Arcs may be directed and labeled with types such as cites, quotes, paraphrases, supports, or challenges. Metadata such as location in the source, page numbers, dates, and confidence scores can accompany nodes and arcs.

Applications: In digital libraries and scholarly tools, referanserk supports analysis of intellectual lineage, tracing argumentation networks, and facilitating sophisticated search by relation type. In authoring environments, it aids dynamic citation management, contextual notes, and the visualization of a document's argumentative structure.

Limitations: The lack of a universal standard hinders interoperability. Building accurate referanserks requires parsing natural language, manual curation, and domain knowledge. Scaling to large corpora can be computationally intensive.

See also: citation graph, knowledge graph, reference management, graph database, digital humanities.