Work

Illuminating connections and contexts: building an ontology for Chinese ration coupon archival resources based on RiC-O

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Introduction. Ration coupons defined everyday life in China from 1953 to 1993, and evolving trends in research demand more sophisticated ways of describing archival resources that document this unique period of history. This study constructed the Chinese Ration Coupon Ontology (CRC-O) using the Records in Contexts-Ontology (RiC-O) model to represent and describe a resource collection of ration coupons, policy documents, and oral histories. Method. CRC-O was built through combining a bottom-up process of inductively identifying key metadata elements through analysing the resources with a top-down application of RiC-O via mapping processes and creating local extensions. Results. CRC-O provides a unified conceptual framework that links three types of resources through shared entities. It reuses 24 core classes and over 50 object and data properties from RiC-O and introduces local extensions. The construction process also illuminated the strengths and limitations of RiC-O. Conclusion. The study offers an application of RiC-O to a new domain, demonstrating its capability to represent and integrate multiple types of archival resources, surface connections between resources, and enable rich, detailed descriptions.

Source: Information Research

DOI: 10.47989/ir31iconf64213

Authors: Linqing Ma, Ruohua Han, Xiaoyan Yang Yang, Yina Wu, Jiaqi Shi

Institutions: Renmin University of China, University of Denver, University of Groningen

Language: English

Topic: Digital and Traditional Archives Management

Subfield: Conservation

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences

OpenAlex ID: W7139045287

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