figure

http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure

as defined in The Document Components Ontology (DoCO)

bibliographic citation
Constantin, A., Peroni, S., Pettifer, S., Shotton, D., Vitali, F. (2016). The Document Components Ontology (DoCO). In Semantic Web, 7 (2): 167-181. DOI: http://doi.org/10.3233/SW-150177
code repository
contributor
Sebastian Barzaghi (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0799-1527)
created
2015-07-03
creator
Silvio Peroni (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0530-4305)
David Shotton (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5506-523X)
date
2026-06-25
description
The **_Document Components Ontology (DoCO)_** is an OWL 2 DL ontology that provides a general-purpose structured vocabulary of document elements. DoCO has been designed as a general unifying ontological framework for describing different aspects related to the content of scientific and other scholarly texts. Its primary goal has been to improve the interoperability and shareability of academic documents (and related services) when multiple formats are actually used for their storage. The creation of DoCO was undertaken by studying different corpora of documents (mainly scientific literature and web documents on different topics) and publishers' guidelines, from two perspectives – the structural and the rhetorical. In addition, some informal interviews have been done with researchers in different fields and with academic publishers, in order to gather as much information as possible about document components and their use. DoCO imports the [Pattern Ontology](http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern) that describes structural patterns (introduced in the paper entitled [_Dealing with structural patterns of XML documents_](http://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23088)), and the [_Discourse Element Ontology_](https://www.sparontologies.net/ontologies/deo) (DEO), which was developed with DoCO and describes rhetorical components. Additionally, it also defines hybrid classes describing elements that are both structural and rhetorical in nature, such as _paragraph_ (`doco:Paragraph`), _section_ (`doco:Section`) or _list_ (`doco:List`). DoCO is also aligned with the [SALT Rhetorical Ontology](http://lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/vocabs/sro) and the [Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks](http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/hcls/notes/orb/) (ORB). A concise summary of the main DoCO classes and its imported ontologies is shown in the following figure. ![DoCO's architecture, with its mail classes distributed accoridng to the ontologies they have been imported from.](doco.png) ## Examples of use In the following subsections, we introduce some examples to showcase how to use DoCO. The prefixes that are used in all the examples provided below are defined as follows: @prefix : <http://www.sparontologies.net/example/> . @prefix doco: <http://purl.org/spar/doco/> . @prefix deo: <http://purl.org/spar/deo/> . @prefix po: <http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#> . @prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> . @prefix fabio: <http://purl.org/spar/fabio/> . @prefix co: <http://purl.org/co/> . @prefix c4o: <http://purl.org/spar/c4o> . ### Describing the structure of an article DoCO can be used for describing several parts of a document such as a journal article (defined through the [FaBiO](https://www.sparontologies.net/ontologies/fabio) class `fabio:JournalArticle`) connecting then by means of the object property `po:contains`. It can be also used in combination with [C4O](https://www.sparontologies.net/ontologies/c4o) and the [Collections Ontology](http://purl.org/co) (CO) for describing its textual content and the particular order in which the various components appear. In particular, the actual textual content of each component can be specified through the property `c4o:hasContent`, while the order can be described by using the entities related with the class `co:List`. :paper a fabio:JournalArticle ; po:contains :front-matter , :body-matter , :back-matter ; co:firstItem [ co:itemContent :front-matter ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :body-matter ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :back-matter ] ] ] . :body-matter a doco:BodyMatter ; po:contains :section-introduction , :section-related-work , :section-document-components , :section-adoption , :section-conclusions ; co:firstItem [ co:itemContent :section-introduction ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :section-related-work ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :section-document-components ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :section-adoption ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :section-conclusions ] ] ] ] ] . :section-introduction a doco:Section , deo:Introduction ; po:containsAsHeader :section-introduction-title ; po:contains :paragraph-1 , :paragraph-2 , :paragraph-3 , :paragraph-4 ; co:firstItem [ co:itemContent :section-introduction-title ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :paragraph-1 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :paragraph-2 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :paragraph-3 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :paragraph-4 ] ] ] ] ] . :section-introduction-title a doco:SectionTitle ; c4o:hasContent 'Introduction' . :paragraph-1 a doco:Paragraph ; po:contains :sentence-1 , :sentence-2 , :sentence-3 , :sentence-4 , :sentence-5 , :sentence-6 , :sentence-7 ; co:firstItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-1 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-2 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-3 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-4 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-5 ; co:nextItem [ co:itemContent :sentence-6 ] ] ] ] ] ] . :sentence-1 a doco:Sentence ; c4o:hasContent 'One of the most important criteria for the evaluation of a scientific contribution is the coherent organisation of the textual narrative that describes it, most often published as a scientific article or book.' . ### Sentences containing references to bibliographic items Among the various parts of a paper, describing references to other objects of the paper, such as bibliographic references, can be of some interest for keeping track, for instance, the number of times a particular publication is actually cited within a paper. DoCO allows one to describe all these parts and to link them together. :sentence a doco:Sentence ; c4o:hasContent 'For instance, a recent report by Beck [3] explains the requirements for an XML vocabulary of scientific journals to be acceptable for inclusion in PubMed Central.' ; po:contains :reference-to-3 . :reference-to-3 a deo:Reference ; c4o:hasContent '[3]' ; dcterms:references :bibliographic-reference-3 . :bibliographic-reference-3 a deo:BibliographicReference ; c4o:hasContent '[3] Beck, J. (2010). Report from the Field: PubMed Central, an XML-based Archive of Life Sciences Journal Articles. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on XML for the Long Haul: Issues in the Long-term Preservation of XML. OA at http://dx.doi.org/10.4242/BalisageVol6.Beck01.' . ## Competency Questions DoCO can be used for answering several questions related to documents and their structural and rethorical elements. In the following subsections, some of them are introduced together with their respective SPARQL queries. The prefixes that are used in all the SPARQL queries provided below are defined as follows: PREFIX : <http://www.sparontologies.net/example/> PREFIX doco: <http://purl.org/spar/doco/> PREFIX deo: <http://purl.org/spar/deo/> PREFIX po: <http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#> PREFIX dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> PREFIX fabio: <http://purl.org/spar/fabio/> PREFIX co: <http://purl.org/co/> PREFIX c4o: <http://purl.org/spar/c4o> ### CQ1 What are all the sections contained within the article's body matter, and in which sequential order do they appear? SELECT ?section ?sectionType WHERE { ?bodyMatter a doco:BodyMatter ; co:firstItem ?item . ?item co:itemContent ?section . ?item co:nextItem* ?next . ?next co:itemContent ?section . OPTIONAL { ?section a ?sectionType . } } ### CQ2 What is the literal textual content of the first sentence belonging to the first paragraph of the introduction section? SELECT ?sentenceText WHERE { ?introSection a deo:Introduction . ?introSection co:firstItem ?headerItem . ?headerItem co:nextItem ?firstParagraphItem . ?firstParagraphItem co:itemContent ?firstParagraph . ?firstParagraph a doco:Paragraph . ?firstParagraph co:firstItem ?firstSentenceItem . ?firstSentenceItem co:itemContent ?firstSentence . ?firstSentence c4o:hasContent ?sentenceText . } ### CQ3 Which in-text references are contained within a specific sentence, and what are their literal textual markers? SELECT ?reference ?textMarker WHERE { ?sentence a doco:Sentence ; po:contains ?reference . ?reference c4o:hasContent ?textMarker . } ### CQ4 What is the full bibliographic text of the reference cited by a specific inline citation marker? SELECT ?inlineMarker ?fullBibliographicText WHERE { ?reference a deo:Reference ; c4o:hasContent ?inlineMarker ; dcterms:references ?bibReference . ?bibReference a deo:BibliographicReference ; c4o:hasContent ?fullBibliographicText . }
doi
https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.162003
image
imports
included in data catalog
is backward compatible with
issued
2015-07-03
keywords
scholarly publishing
semantic publishing
document components
scientometrics
bibliometrics
license
logo
modified
2026-06-25
preferred namespace prefix
doco
preferred namespace uri
http://purl.org/spar/doco/
prior version
publisher
see also
source
status
title
The Document Components Ontology (DoCO)
version
version info
1.4.0
Other visualisation
WebVOWL Source
Export
Turtle RDF/XML JSON-LD N-Triples

figure
c

IRI: http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure

comment
A communication object comprising one or more graphics, drawings, images, or other visual representations..
en
is defined by
http://purl.org/spar/doco/
is sub concept of
discourse elementc
(
meta elementc
or
milestone elementc
)
label
figure
en
example
:my-figure a doco:Figure .
term status

@prefix deo: <http://purl.org/spar/deo/> .
@prefix doco: <http://purl.org/spar/doco/> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix po: <http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#> .
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix reg: <http://purl.org/linked-data/registry#> .
@prefix vann: <http://purl.org/vocab/vann/> .
@prefix vs: <http://www.w3.org/2003/06/sw-vocab-status/ns#> .

doco:Figure a owl:Class ;
    rdfs:label "figure"@en ;
    vann:example """
    :my-figure a doco:Figure .
    """ ;
    rdfs:comment "A communication object comprising one or more graphics, drawings, images, or other visual representations.."@en ;
    rdfs:isDefinedBy doco: ;
    rdfs:subClassOf [ a owl:Class ;
            owl:unionOf ( po:Meta po:Milestone ) ],
        deo:DiscourseElement ;
    vs:term_status reg:statusStable .


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rdf:RDF
   xmlns:owl="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
   xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
   xmlns:vann="http://purl.org/vocab/vann/"
   xmlns:vs="http://www.w3.org/2003/06/sw-vocab-status/ns#"
>
  <rdf:Description rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b82">
    <rdf:first rdf:resource="http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Milestone"/>
    <rdf:rest rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil"/>
  </rdf:Description>
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure">
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource="http://purl.org/spar/deo/DiscourseElement"/>
    <rdfs:subClassOf rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80"/>
    <rdfs:comment xml:lang="en">A communication object comprising one or more graphics, drawings, images, or other visual representations..</rdfs:comment>
    <rdfs:label xml:lang="en">figure</rdfs:label>
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class"/>
    <rdfs:isDefinedBy rdf:resource="http://purl.org/spar/doco/"/>
    <vann:example>
    :my-figure a doco:Figure .
    </vann:example>
    <vs:term_status rdf:resource="http://purl.org/linked-data/registry#statusStable"/>
  </rdf:Description>
  <rdf:Description rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80">
    <rdf:type rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class"/>
    <owl:unionOf rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b81"/>
  </rdf:Description>
  <rdf:Description rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b81">
    <rdf:first rdf:resource="http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Meta"/>
    <rdf:rest rdf:nodeID="n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b82"/>
  </rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

[
  {
    "@id": "http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure",
    "@type": [
      "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class"
    ],
    "http://purl.org/vocab/vann/example": [
      {
        "@value": "\n    :my-figure a doco:Figure .\n    "
      }
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#comment": [
      {
        "@language": "en",
        "@value": "A communication object comprising one or more graphics, drawings, images, or other visual representations.."
      }
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#isDefinedBy": [
      {
        "@id": "http://purl.org/spar/doco/"
      }
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label": [
      {
        "@language": "en",
        "@value": "figure"
      }
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#subClassOf": [
      {
        "@id": "http://purl.org/spar/deo/DiscourseElement"
      },
      {
        "@id": "_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80"
      }
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2003/06/sw-vocab-status/ns#term_status": [
      {
        "@id": "http://purl.org/linked-data/registry#statusStable"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "@id": "_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80",
    "@type": [
      "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class"
    ],
    "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#unionOf": [
      {
        "@list": [
          {
            "@id": "http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Meta"
          },
          {
            "@id": "http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Milestone"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b82 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#rest> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#nil> .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#subClassOf> <http://purl.org/spar/deo/DiscourseElement> .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#comment> "A communication object comprising one or more graphics, drawings, images, or other visual representations.."@en .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#subClassOf> _:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80 .
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class> .
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b82 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#first> <http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Milestone> .
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b81 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#rest> _:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b82 .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label> "figure"@en .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2003/06/sw-vocab-status/ns#term_status> <http://purl.org/linked-data/registry#statusStable> .
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b81 <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#first> <http://www.essepuntato.it/2008/12/pattern#Meta> .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Class> .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#isDefinedBy> <http://purl.org/spar/doco/> .
<http://purl.org/spar/doco/Figure> <http://purl.org/vocab/vann/example> "\n    :my-figure a doco:Figure .\n    " .
_:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b80 <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#unionOf> _:n3b1bab1f2e67482f9ea2fcacd8712072b81 .
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