Abstract

Conventional use of the RDF reification vocabulary is based on an understanding that triples stand in a type/instance relationship with "tokens" appearing in RDF documents. But this convention, intended to support provenance documentation, presents puzzles for understanding how a serialized expression can stand in direct relationships with resources referred to by an abstract triple. Recording the provenance of an RDF statement may be better achieved by reifiying the notation expressing it. The same system can then be applied both to RDF and to statements expressed using other XML applications. We illustrate with examples from a digital preservation research project.