Citations and references in W3C (including RQTF) publications

Dear colleagues,

My purpose is to make public and to carry forward a conversation started with Janina and Scott recently. We decided it would be worthwhile to inquire whether there is an approach that could be taken to cite references in W3C publications using one of the commonly available bibliographical data formats. Currently, bibliography entries are in a custom SpecRef format designed to cite technical specifications, but not to cite journal literature or other scholarly sources.

Based on preliminary observations, BibTeX and RIS bibliography data formats seem to be widely used. Google Scholar, for example, can export references in any of BibTeX, EndNote, RefMan (I think that’s RIS) or RefWorks formats.

The goal would be to be able to cite references provided in one of these formats directly in W3C publications, with automatic generation of a suitable citation style and a bibliography entry.

Thank you, Janina, for taking up the issue. I appreciate resolution may take time, but it will facilitate work on our Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning document when we reach the point of reworking the citations and bibliography. I, at least, don’t want to be writing bibliography entries by hand in JSON format.

Regards,

Jason.