authority link

• CURIE: gmeow:authorityLink
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/authorityLink
• Category: property
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/coreference
• Box roles: RBox role (What is this?)

Links a GMEOW entity to a record in an external authority, registry, database, gazetteer, or catalogue by IRI. It is a see-also authority pointer, not an OWL identity merge; assert the strength of the coreference separately with skos:exactMatch or skos:closeMatch. The range is intentionally open. Wikidata is the recommended hub because its cross-references reach many other authorities.

Structure

Property shape: object property; gmeow:Entity -> ?

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:authorityLink from gmeow:Entity to ? when the relationship itself belongs in the native GMEOW graph.

Example Snippets

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

Authority Links

• Source: slices/core/coreference/examples/authority-links.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-coreference-examples-authority-links

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: coreference WITHOUT identity merge. A locally-recorded
# person is linked to two external authority records — a confident match and a
# near (uncertain) one — using gmeow:authorityLink (the flat pointer) alongside
# skos:exactMatch / skos:closeMatch (graded alignment). GMEOW NEVER asserts
# owl:sameAs to an external entity (Principle 5): identity is aligned by
# reference, with confidence, never collapsed. A creative work and its later
# annotated edition show the intra-corpus coreference edges (editionOf,
# supersedes) that relate distinct records of the "same" thing.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/coreference/> .
@prefix skos:  <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .

# --- A locally-recorded person aligned to external authorities. The exact match
#     is asserted with confidence; the near one stays a CLOSE (not exact) match,
#     so a downstream consumer can choose its own merge threshold.
ex:recordedAuthor a gmeow:Person ;
    gmeow:name "Lin Saito"@en ;
    gmeow:authorityLink <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097> ,
                        <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q42> ;
    skos:exactMatch <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1825-0097> ;
    skos:closeMatch <http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q42> .

Located Place

• Source: slices/core/places/examples/located-place.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-places-examples-located-place

# --- The containment spine: each place is a first-class Place, related by
#     gmeow:containedInPlace, with gazetteer alignment by reference.
ex:canada a gmeow:Place ;
    gmeow:name "Canada"@en ;
    gmeow:placeType gmeow:placeTypeCountry ;
    gmeow:authorityLink wd:Q16 ;
    skos:exactMatch wd:Q16 .

ex:alberta a gmeow:Place ;
    gmeow:name "Alberta"@en ;
    gmeow:placeType gmeow:placeTypeRegion ;
    gmeow:containedInPlace ex:canada ;
    gmeow:authorityLink wd:Q1951 ;
    skos:exactMatch wd:Q1951 .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:Entity, gmeow:Identifier, gmeow:hasIdentifier

Cross-Cutting Concerns

identifiers and coreference

Projects To

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: mads, schema, whg

Linkages

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

Term Equivalences

Projection Coverage

Usage Advice

Use when

• Use when a stable GMEOW entity should point at its record in an external authority — a Wikidata item, gazetteer entry, VIAF name, or database row — as a see-also reference whose match strength is asserted separately with skos:exactMatch or skos:closeMatch.

Avoid when

• Avoid asserting identity between the GMEOW node and the external record (never owl:sameAs — the link is a reference, not a merge); for two GMEOW entities that are counterparts across realms use gmeow:counterpartOf, and keep contested matches standpoint-indexed rather than collapsed.

How to use

• Point the entity at the external IRI and pair the link with an explicit skos:exactMatch or skos:closeMatch carrying the coreference strength; prefer a Wikidata hub IRI so its own cross-references reach the other authorities.

Examples

• ex:lillith gmeow:authorityLink http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q42; skos:exactMatch http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q42.

Use For Consumers

• gmeow:consumerInternalArchive
• gmeow:consumerResearchQueue
• gmeow:consumerWikidata