👉Reference

Directional link between two publications indicating scientific dependence

Relates a research object with another, indicating that the result depend on or is related to the target publication. The exact meaning of this relation depends on the author intention, in the same way as a reference in a classical paper does.

Having dedicated entities for references, instead of text based equivalents in the paper, enables querying the scientific record based on direct or transient reference relations.

Reference relations, showing transient references between three publications

Since any actor can create these relations, a gateway operator may choose to only show such indications created by the publication author or an otherwise trustworthy actor.

Schema

Field	Type	Description
fromID	ID	Research object at the source of the reference
fromVersion	Commit	Version indicator of the same
toID	ID	Research object at the target of the reference
toVersion	Commit	Version indicator of the same
revoked	Boolean	Revokation status

Revocation

Since entity instances can be updated, but not deleted, the way to recall a contributor indication is by updating this field to true. Gateways should respect this and mark it as revoked from the version where it happened.