1 Introduction
This article proposes conventions for consistently marking up bibliographic entries using the biblioentry element.
DocBook 5: The Definitive Guide(ref.tdg) defines the schema for biblioentry, but does not provide further guidance on how to use this element consistently.
As a result, any attempt to generate output in any consistent style (Chicago, APA, MLA, etc.) is immediately hampered by a lack of information on how to interpret the contents of a biblioentry.
The conventions proposed here are designed to give guidance to authors who want to use biblioentry and stylesheet developers who want to develop stylesheet customizations for particular styles.
1.1 Terminology
I use the following terms in this article:
- style
A set of guidelines for how bibliographic information should be rendered. There are hundreds of such styles, including Chicago (aka CMOS), Modern Language Association (MLA), and many more.
- markup
The format used to encode bibliographic information. Examples include the DocBook
biblioentryelement, BiBTeX, OpenCitation, and many more.- inline reference
A brief reference in the main text of a publication that points to an entry in a bibliography, which contains the full reference. For example, the reference to DocBook: The Definitive Guide in the first paragraph of this introduction is an inline reference, which points to a full bibliographic entry in Section 8, Examples.
- note
A bibliographic entry within the text of a publication, often in a footnote. In this case, there is no need for a separate bibliography, though some styles allow for one in addition to the note. In some styles, for example CMOS, there is a first note, which is a full entry, followed by a short note for subsequent references. Some styles use a short note in the text plus a bibliography.
- bibliography
Also referred to as Works Cited (MLA) or Reference List (APA), this is a full bibliographic reference, typically placed in a separate back-of-the-book section.
- resource
The publication that a
biblioentrydescribes.