Citation Act

A reified citation: a citing entity cites a cited entity with a typed intent, optionally via a selector (a pinpoint into the cited work), carrying provenance, confidence, and standpoint. Replaces the old hasSource/citesSource: genealogical evidence is a CitationAct with intent intentCitesAsDataSource toward a creative work, via a selector. ENACTS rather than describes the cited work (kernel gmeow:hasAboutness gmeow:aboutnessEnacts): the act points at the work, it does not become a description of it.

Structure

Subclass of: gufo:Relator

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:CitationAct as a specialized kind of gufo:Relator. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Citation Act

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: citation is flat-first, reified on demand ( P4 — the same
# promotion pattern as rights). A bare gmeow:cites edge covers "A references B".
# When the citation's INTENT and exact LOCATION matter, it is promoted to a
# gmeow:CitationAct relator binding gmeow:citingEntity × gmeow:citedEntity ×
# gmeow:citationIntent, pinned to a precise gmeow:Selector (page + verbatim quote)
# via gmeow:viaSelector. gmeow:cites pairsWith gmeow:CitationAct: the flat edge
# and its reification name the same fact at two levels of detail.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/citations/> .

# --- The reified act: not just THAT it cites, but WHY (uses a method from it)
#     and WHERE (the exact passage the method appears in).
ex:cite1 a gmeow:CitationAct ;
    gmeow:citingEntity   ex:myPaper ;
    gmeow:citedEntity    ex:citedPaper ;
    gmeow:citationIntent gmeow:intentUsesMethodIn ;
    gmeow:viaSelector    ex:sel1 .

Notability Assessment

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: grading citations as evidence. The evidence slice hangs
# quality dimensions on a gmeow:CitationAct (from the citations slice): its
# gmeow:hasEvidenceClass, gmeow:sourceTier (primary/secondary/tertiary),
# gmeow:sourceIndependence and gmeow:coverageDepth together decide whether the
# citation gmeow:supportsNotability. The Wikipedia-notability discrimination falls
# straight out: independent + secondary + significant coverage SUPPORTS it; a
# routine self-originated passing mention does NOT — same predicate, graded.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/evidence/> .

# --- Strong evidence: an independent trade-press feature with depth → supports.
#     The subject (citingEntity, generic Entity) is supported by the cited work
#     (citedEntity, a CreativeWork): gmeow:intentSupports reads "the cited work
#     supports the citing entity", and the evidence dimensions grade that support.
ex:goodCite a gmeow:CitationAct ;
    gmeow:citingEntity       ex:subject ;
    gmeow:citedEntity        ex:feature ;
    gmeow:citationIntent     gmeow:intentSupports ;
    gmeow:hasEvidenceClass   gmeow:evidenceIndependentTradePress ;
    gmeow:sourceTier         gmeow:sourceTierSecondary ;
    gmeow:sourceIndependence gmeow:sourceIndependenceIndependent ;
    gmeow:coverageDepth      gmeow:coverageDepthSignificantCoverage ;
    gmeow:supportsNotability true .

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: schema

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences

Source Kind Profile Predicate/Relation Target Evidence
gmeow:CitationAct equivalence - skos:relatedMatch schema:citation gmeow-evidence.sssom.tsv; gmeow:eqEvidence006; confidence 0.6

Usage Advice

Use when

Avoid when

How to use

Examples

Use For Consumers

Published Alignment Graph

Alignments

RelationTarget
relatedMatchschema:citation