HTML5 Citations, References, Equation References and Footnotes

HTML5 Working Group,
 
Greetings. I have some ideas for HTML5 with regard to citing, referencing, equation references, and footnotes. The ideas include a <reference/> element and <footnote/> element that can provide destination anchors via @id attributes such that those strings can then be utilizable in the @cite attributes of other elements. Additionally, <math/> elements can make use of the @id attribute to be referred to identically. Rendering can make use of CSS3 to render configurably as per APA, MLA, MHRA, Chicago, CBE/CSE, Bluebook, Bluebook: Harvard Jolt, AMA, and other formats and styles. Various other HTML5 document elements may be compatible with such a system and a @role attribute may be of use to specify document element roles, e.g. chart, diagram, figure, formula, graph, illustration, lemma, et al.
 
A <reference/> element is envisioned as for referencing materials or resources using a metadata model. A <reference/> element is then a structured document reference that can render per any style or format and in a way that can be configurable for both authors and readers. With a <reference id=”ref1″ … /> element in a document, other elements such as <q cite=”#ref1″>text</q> and <cite cite=”#ref1”>text</cite> could render as “text” (Smith 2012) and text (Smith 2012). A reimagined semantics of the <cite/> element is that the contained hypertext content is the author’s while specifically indicating one or more references and/or footnotes.
 
Each of the HTML elements with the @cite attribute can include more attributes from the metadata model of <reference/>. For example, that could allow rendering “text” (Smith 2012, p. 123) from <q cite=”#ref1″ frompage=”123″/>. An empty <cite/> element could render as the parenthetical reference itself, that is <cite cite=”#ref1″/> could render as (Smith 2012).
 
With document text such as:
 
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum (Smith 2012).
 
it is unclear, simply and mechanically, whether the parenthetical reference is intended as for its previous phrase, sentence, sentences, paragraph or paragraphs.
 
However, the following example:
 
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. <cite cite=”#ref1″>Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</cite>
 
clarifies that and, furthermore, with such an approach, nesting is possible as per: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. <cite cite=”#ref1″><cite cite=”#ref2″>Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</cite></cite>.
 
Footnoting differs from referencing, and is envisioned as making use of a <footnote/> element. Desired renderings might include per document, per page or per column footers containing rendered footnotes. The layout details of footnote regions are more complex with HTML5 and CSS3 document possiblities. In any event, with something like <footnote id=”footnote1″>footnote text</footnote>, a <q cite=”#footnote1″>text</q> could render as “text”<sup>1</sup>, configurably, and a <cite cite=”#footnote1”>text</cite> could render as text<sup>1</sup>, configurably, and a <cite cite=”#footnote1″/> could place the <sup>1</sup>, again configurably with CSS3.
 
The <reference/> elements are envisioned as often occurring together in a document section. The <footnote/> elements are envisioned as rendering with more complex layout considerations as per documents, pages and columns and media types in CSS3.
 
Summarily, citing, referencing, equation and other document element referencing, and footnoting can be facilitated with new HTML5 elements <reference/> and <footnote/>, with @id -based destination anchors such that semantics can be defined for the use of those in the @cite attribute value strings of other elements, and perhaps with a reimagined <cite/> element.
 
 
Kind regards,

Adam Sobieski