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The Relaton Information Model
The Relaton Information Model is a comprehensive data model for bibliographic references and citations. It is the machine-readable implementation of ISO 690:2021, extending the standard to meet the specific needs of standards development organizations and the broader scholarly ecosystem.
Architecture
The model is organized around the BibliographicItem — the central entity that represents any citable document. A BibliographicItem contains:
- Titles — in multiple scripts and languages
- Contributors — persons, organizations, and their roles
- Identifiers — document IDs, DOIs, ISBNs, URIs
- Production information — publisher, place, dates
- Relations — links to other documents (replaces, amends, etc.)
- Classification — document type, keywords, subjects
- Content details — edition, medium, series, numeration
Start Here
ISO 690 Guidelines — the principles, data elements, resource types, and citation systems that Relaton implements
Extensions Beyond ISO 690 — document lifecycle, 50+ relation types, structured identifiers, and what Relaton adds
Flavor Extensions — per-SDO model extensions (ISO, IEC, IETF, ITU, NIST, BIPM, 3GPP, IEEE, W3C)
ISO 690 Entity Mapping
ISO 690 defines 14 data element categories. Each maps to a Relaton entity:
| ISO 690 Area | Relaton Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Title | Title types, scripts, and formatting |
| Creator | Contributor | Person, Organization, Affiliation |
| Edition | Edition | Edition and versioning |
| Material Designation | Medium | Content/carrier/size |
| Production | Production | Place, publisher, dates |
| Publication Place | Location | Access locations, URIs |
| Series | Series | Series membership |
| Numeration | Numeration | Extent, pagination, size |
| Identifiers | Identifiers | Document identifiers and scopes |
| Relations | Relations | 60+ document relation types |
| Additional Info | Additional Info | Keywords, classification, tags |
| Resource Type | Bibitem Types | ISO 690 + BibTeX union types |
Reference
Serializations — YAML, XML, BibTeX, AsciiBib, JSON-LD with side-by-side examples
UML Diagrams — formal UML diagrams of the Relaton data model