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I'm attempting to create/implement an RDF-schema for historical data: setting up a base schema is simple, but I've run into a roadblock when trying to add a verifiable source for each claim (predicate).

For example, it's relatively easy to declare 'Alexander (subject) has a brother (predicate) Robert (object)'... but I would like that claim (that is the whole) that Robert was indeed Alexander's brother to be cited, with a link to the original source document, if possible.

The best I could come up with is a 'doubled triplet' schema:

    Alexander -> has_a_brother -> Robert
    Alexander -> has_a_brother_source -> 'http://sourcedocumentserver.com/blablabla'
    Alexander -> has_a_brother_source -> 'http://sourcedocumentserver2.com/blablabla'
    Alexander -> has_a_brother_source -> 'http://sourcedocumentserver3.com/blablabla'

Is there a better way to go about this?

PS: this problem is a bit different than a 'predicate variable' (like the question that this one was said to replicate), but in this 'citation needed' circumstance, every single predicate in the database would need a secondary description/label/name (and that's even without imagining multiple citations, attribution data, etc.).

The best I could find was transforming every 'citation needed' predicate into a named graph (with multiple RDF triplets) that would contain the object normally directly joined (if no citation were required).

Josef M. Schomburg
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    Possible duplicate of [How can I express additional information (time, probability) about a relation in RDF?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32923213/how-can-i-express-additional-information-time-probability-about-a-relation-in) – Jeen Broekstra Jan 09 '18 at 22:21
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    Indeed, as pointed by @JeenBroekstra, reification (statement {s,o,p} hasProvenance provenance) and quads ( graph {s,o,p} ) or two possible solutions. – Ivo Velitchkov Jan 10 '18 at 10:21
  • One of the best references concerning this the Linked Data Patterns book, specifically chapter 5: http://patterns.dataincubator.org/book/data-management-patterns.html – user205512 Jan 10 '18 at 12:54
  • I will look at that book for sure, and thank you all for your suggestions/comments. – Josef M. Schomburg Jan 10 '18 at 15:12

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