Withabout

Withabout is a term used in information science and linguistics to describe a relational annotation that connects a resource to the topic it discusses. In this usage, withabout denotes a topic relationship attached to a resource, distinct from authorship or provenance metadata. It is not a standard in major cataloging schemas, but has appeared in discussions of topic-oriented indexing and lightweight knowledge graphs as a practical way to express what a document is about.

Etymology and context: The term blends the prepositions with and about, mirroring the sentence-level phrase something about something. It emerged in digital humanities and information retrieval communities in the 2010s and 2020s as researchers sought explicit topic signals without overburdening schemas. The concept is descriptive rather than prescriptive, serving as a convenient label for topic connections in experimental workflows.

Usage and encoding: In practice, withabout can be encoded as a simple triple (resource, withabout, topic) or as a dedicated metadata field. It supports topic-based search, filtering, and clustering by separating subject matter from other resource attributes. For example, a resource record for “Urban Water Management” might include withabout values such as “urban infrastructure” and “water policy.”

Variants and related notions: Related constructs include withabout_uri for machine-readable identifiers and withabout_label for human-readable topic names. The approach is often discussed alongside subject indexing, metadata schemas, and RDF-style knowledge graphs as a lightweight method to capture topic scope.

See also: subject indexing, metadata, topic modeling, knowledge graphs, RDF.