referencean

Referencean is a term that has appeared in discussions of information management and digital libraries to denote a standardized reference unit that remains stable across different data representations. It is not widely adopted and currently exists mainly in speculative discussions and experimental projects.

The word appears to be a blend of "reference" and the suffix -an, a form sometimes used to create nouns indicating a thing associated with a concept. In this usage, referencean is meant to denote a concrete, persistent reference object rather than a simple link.

A referencean is conceived as a metadata entity that functions as a stable pointer to a resource across diverse datasets. Typical components are a persistent identifier, a type indicating the resource category, a human-readable label, and mappings to source records in different systems. The object is designed to be versioned and to carry provenance information.

Supporters point to potential benefits in linking bibliographic records across systems and preserving references during schema changes; critics question practical interoperability without a formal standard.

As of now, referencean lacks codified standards, and there is no consolidated specification. It remains a topic of discussion in niche circles and experimental catalogs.

Related concepts include persistent identifiers such as DOIs and ARKs, and the idea of crosswalks between schemas. There are no formal references for the term at present; it is a nascent concept mainly described in experimental projects and online discussions.