Referencing System (The <cite> Element:)

Hi All,

Introduction:

  As I was skimming through the archives recently, I noticed a discussion on
the <cite> element suggesting that it requires improvements to it's referencing
system.

  One of the problems raised in previous threads was that it is difficult to
reference materials that don't have a URI (eg. an old book, without an ISBN
was one example used).


Background Information:

  At my University, we are required to use the Harvard, author-date system for
referencing any material we use in our assignments (ie. books, news articles,
web sites, etc...).  Of course, I am aware that there are dozens of other referencing
systems used in the world.

  However, The important point is that each of these systems contain *common
information*, that is just presented differently such as the Author(s), publication
date, title, URI and access date (for web pages), publisher, etc.


The Proposal:

  It would be useful if there was an XML language that could be used to markup
these elements, which could then have CSS applied to format the reference in
the Harvard author-date system, or any other referencing system required.

NOTE: This proposal may be out of the
      scope of the XHTML language.


Very Simple Example:

<p>Recently, <cite cite="#ref1">Simpson</cite> said <quote>something...</quote>.</p>


<!-- rest of document -->

<referencelist xmlns="http://www.example.org/reference">
    <reference id="ref1">
        <authorlist>
            <author>Simpson, H.</author
            <author>Carlson, C.</author>
        </authorlist>
        <title>Homer's Handyman Tips</title>
        <published datetime="2002-10-15"/>
        <!-- etc... -->
        <!-- AFAIK, this is not a real book, I'm just a simpson's fan -->
    </reference>
    <!-- More references -->
</referencelist>


Pros:

1. This does not modify the existing <cite>, <quote> or <blockquote> elements
in anyway; the cite attribute just has a URI pointing to an ID instead.

2. This would allow any material that can be referenced by current referencing
systems to be referenced within an XML (incl. XHTML) document.


Cons:

1. Such a (complex?) system would, IMHO, most definately be out of the scope
of XHTML, and is best suited to another XML language (as stated in the NOTE
above).


Question:

1. Does anyone know if an organisation has already created an XML referencing
system that could be used here?

CYA
...Lachy

Received on Thursday, 6 November 2003 09:31:30 UTC