Resource Description Framework (RDF) Models for Representing the Revision Process in Research Support Systems

Abstract

A general research support system essentially provides support for the daily research activities of students in higher education. One of the important research activities is the revision process that students go through to improve the quality of their research output after they receive feedback from their supervisors or reviewers. This concept paper presents the rationale for using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to describe the revision process metadata in the form of a universal model that enables integration, interchange of information and standardized communication across various research support tools, processing and storage. With RDF, we can not only query the original metadata to find out the progress of the revision process, but we can also apply inference queries to discover relationships or patterns related to the overall research process. The inference queries will also enable students to reflect on and observe the changes the research drafts go through during revision leading to the final version. Such inferences cannot be realized when using a traditional relation database (RDB) or when using native file applications such as word processors. Using RDF, the logging and history of the revision process during daily research can be obtained for reflection, which is an important part of learning how to carry out research better. The design is currently in the process of being implemented and tested.