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GENO, the Genetic Networks Ontology

This version:
https://w3id.org/geno/2023-07-01
Latest version:
https://w3id.org/geno
Previous version:
https://github.com/gen-o/geno/tree/master/2019-09-01
Revision:
1.0
Authors:
Elena Spadini
Contributors:
Alessio Christen
Imported Ontologies:
fabio
frbr
CRMtex
Download serialization:
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License:
http://insertlicenseURIhere.example.org
Visualization:
Visualize with WebVowl
Cite as:
Elena Spadini. GENO, the Genetic Network Ontology. Revision: 1.0. https://w3id.org/geno
Provenance of this page
Ontology Specification

Abstract

GENO is a generic model for describing genetic entities and their relationships. It is applicable in the fields of genetic criticism, scholarly editing, authorial philology and in general for the study of authorial manuscripts and writing processes.

GENO, the Genetic Networks Ontology: Overview back to ToC

This ontology has the following classes and properties.

Classes

Classes hierarchy

Expression (fabio)
-    Publication
Genetic dossier
Genetic stage
Publication part
Written Text (CRMtex)
-    Witness
-    -    Avant-textual witness
-    -     -    Precompositional phase resource
-    -     -    Compositional phase resource
-    -     -    Post-editorial phase resource
-    -     -    Pre-publication phase resource
-    -    Diary entry
-    -    Documentation
-    -    Endogenetic witness
-    -     -    Avant-textual witness
-    -     -    Diary entry
-    -    Exogenetic witness
-    -     -    Documentation
-    -     -    Marginalia
-    -     -    Other material
-    -    Marginalia
-    -    Other material

Object Properties

Object properties hierarchy

Property Domain Range
dossier is part of dossier Genetic dossier Genetic dossier
dossier is reused in dossier Genetic dossier Genetic dossier
has genetic stage Avant-textual witness Genetic stage
is after Witness Witness
is before Witness Witness
is member of dossier Witness Genetic dossier
is part of publication Publication part Publication
is reused in dossier Genetic dossier
publication is reused in dossier Publication Genetic dossier
publication part is reused in dossier Publication part Genetic dossier
results in publication Genetic dossier Publication
results in publication part Genetic dossier Publication part

Named Individuals

GENO, the Genetic Networks Ontology: Description back to ToC

Background

Genetic criticism and authorial philology are fields of study dealing with the genesis of literary, and more in general textual, works. A genetic witness is a document bearing witness to the genesis of a work, such as a manuscript, a typescript, a proof, a printed copy, a digital file, etc. While the single genetic witness can be formally modelled using the standards developed by the Text Encoding Initiative (the text, the support, each phenomenon on the page), no standard is available so far for describing the witness as a genetic entity and in relation with other witnesses. GENO aims at filling this gap, by providing a model for describing networks of genetic witnesses, that can be called 'genetic networks'.

The following are two examples of genetic networks, taken from the Roud project (for which see below):

Entities

The main classes in GENO are geno:Witness, geno:Publication and geno:GeneticDossier.
The genetic dossier gathers all documents "that bear witness to the evolution of the work" (De Biasi 2004). It is a scholarly construct and not something instrinsic to the documents.
The classes geno:Publication and geno:Witness are two opposite poles in relation to the dossier: the dossier includes one or more witnesses and it results in a publication (or part of it) (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: The relationship between the witness, the dossier and the publication.


The relationships are slightly more complex when parts of publications should be considered separately (Fig. 2), as in the case for example of chapters with different genesis.

Figure 2: The relationship between the witness, the dossier, the publication and the publication part.


As a subclass of fabio:Expression, the publication is "a realization of a single work" (Davis and Newman 2005), but it is not a specific exemplar. When a publication is reused for a new writing project (e.g. a new edition or a new book), geno:Publication will have a link to the new dossier as geno:publicationIsReusedInDossier (or geno:publicationPartIsReusedInDossier). If there is a concrete document in which the original publication is reworked for the new project, for example an annotated exemplar of the publication (geno:PublishedItem), that document will be a witness belonging to the new dossier (Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Reuse of a publication for a new writing project.


In contrast to the publication, the witness is a concrete document. As a subclass of CRMtex:TX1_Written_Text, the witness is unique and characterised by the close relationship between the text and its support. Witnesses can be ordered chronologically using the properties geno:isBefore and geno:isAfter. In GENO, a witness can be further specified by its subclasses geno:Avant-textualWitness, geno:DiaryEntry, geno:Documentation, geno:Marginalia, geno:OtherMaterial. Based on these sub-classes, each witness belongs to the endogenesis or exogenesis (De Biasi 1996, De Biasi 2020): avant-textual witnesses and diary entries are considered as endogenetic witnesses, while documentation, marginalia and other materials as exogenetic witnesses (Fig. 4).

Figure 4: The witness, its subclasses and their distribution in endogenesis and exogenesis.


An avant-textual witness is also characterised by a genetic stage. GENO offers a number of named individuals of type geno:GeneticStage (clear copy, draft, final copy, list, plan, proofs, published item, scenario, sketch), but others might be added depending on the needs of the different projects.
Avant-textual witnesses can be organised in phases: pre-compositional, compositional, pre-publication, post-editorial (De Biasi 1996, Mahrer 2017). In GENO, the affiliation of a witness to one of the four phases is inferred based on its genetic stage: for example, a witness with the genetic stage 'list' will be a member of the pre-compositional phase. These generic rules might be customised for better representing specific genetic profiles.

Geno in use, competency questions and corresponding sparql queries

GENO is meant to be general enough to accommodate the needs of different projects. It is quite small and simple, because it only focuses on the materials from the point of view of the genetic status and relationships. GENO should be combined with other ontologies for describing bibliographic and archival resources.

The competency questions used to develop the ontology and the corresponding sparql queries are available together with two data samples, based on the Roud project and the Bernard Comment, “En mer” prototype.

GENO (previous versions: 0.1, 0.2) was originally created as part of the project « Gustave Roud. Œuvres complètes », the critical edition of the complete works of the Swiss author Gustave Roud (1897-1976), directed by D. Maggetti and C. Jaquier (University of Lausanne, 2017-2021).

Cite as

Ontology current version (1.0):

Ontology previous versions:

Visualisations of the Roud data, modelled with GENO:

Cross-reference for GENO, the Genetic Networks Ontology classes, object properties and data properties back to ToC

This section provides details for each class and property defined by GENO, the Genetic Networks Ontology.

Classes

Avant-textual witnessc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Avant-textualWitness

The witness created within a writing project. Compared to other types of witness (diary, marginalia etc.), the avant-textual witness is a priori genetic, because it is born as a plan, a list, a draft for something.
has super-classes
Endogenetic witness c, Witness c
is in domain of
has genetic stage op
is disjoint with
Diary entry c, Documentation c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Publication c, Publication part c

Compositional phase resourcec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#CompositionalPhaseResource

The witness that belongs to the compositional phase of the writing project, such as a sketch, a draft or a clear copy.
is equivalent to
Avant-textual witness c and (( has genetic stage op value clear copy) or ( has genetic stage op value draft) or ( has genetic stage op value sketch))

Diary entryc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#DiaryEntry

A diary entry, usually defined by a date and sometimes a place at the beginning of the text. It is not genetic material a priori, but becomes part of the genetic dossier when used in a writing project.
has super-classes
Endogenetic witness c, Witness c
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Documentation c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c

Documentationc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Documentation

Documentation used by the author in a writing project. For example, a web page or newspaper clipping that the author consults.
has super-classes
Exogenetic witness c, Witness c
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Marginalia c, Other material c

Endogenetic witnessc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#EndogenesisWitness

The text written by the author and internal to the writing project.
is equivalent to
Witness c and ( Avant-textual witness c or Diary entry c)
has super-classes
Witness c
has sub-classes
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c
is disjoint with
Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Publication c, Publication part c

Exogenetic witnessc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#ExogenesisWitness

The text, whether written or annotated by the author or not, that is brought into the genetic dossier from outside, such as external sources and documentation.
is equivalent to
Witness c and ( Documentation c or Marginalia c or Other material c)
has super-classes
Witness c
has sub-classes
Documentation c, Marginalia c, Other material c
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Endogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c

Expressionc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: http://purl.org/spar/fabio/Expression

A subclass of FRBR expression, restricted to expressions of fabio:Works.
has sub-classes
Publication c

Genetic dossierc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#GeneticDossier

The collection of witnesses that provide evidence for a writing project, resulting or not in a publication. The genetic dossier is a critical construction of the interpreter studying the materials. The genetic dossier includes avant-textual witnesses, but also other types of witnesses, such as diary entries, marginalia or documentation. It may contain one or more sub-dossiers, which are instances of the same geno:GeneticDossier class and are linked to it through the property geno:dossierIsPartOfDossier.
has super-classes
is in domain of
dossier is part of dossier op, dossier is reused in dossier op, results in publication op, results in publication part op
is in range of
dossier is part of dossier op, dossier is reused in dossier op, is member of dossier op, is reused in dossier op, publication is reused in dossier op, publication part is reused in dossier op
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Endogenetic witness c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c, Witness c

Genetic stagec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#GeneticStage

The genetic stage of an avant-textual witness. Possible values are defined in the current ontology: sketch, scenario, plan, list, draft, clear copy, final copy, proofs, published item. This list of values can be extended by adding new instances.
has super-classes
thing c
is in range of
has genetic stage op
has members
clear copy ni, draft ni, final copy ni, list ni, plan ni, proofs ni, published item ni, scenario ni, sketch ni
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Endogenetic witness c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c, Witness c

Marginaliac back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Marginalia

The mark or annotation in a publication by another author, that is considered relevant to a genetic process and is therefore included in the genetic dossier.
has super-classes
Exogenetic witness c, Witness c
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Documentation c, Endogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c

Other materialc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#OtherMaterial

Any other material that is considered relevant to a genetic process and is therefore included in the genetic dossier. For example, the contract with a publisher. The type of material can be further specified by extending the current ontology.
has super-classes
Exogenetic witness c, Witness c
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Documentation c, Endogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Publication part c

Post-editorial phase resourcec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#PostEditorialPhaseResource

The witness that belongs to the post-editorial phase of the writing project, for example a published exemplar with annotations.
is equivalent to
Avant-textual witness c and ( has genetic stage op value published item)
is disjoint with
Diary entry c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Publication c, Publication part c

Pre-compositional phase resourcec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#PrecompositionalPhaseResource

The witness that belongs to the pre-compositional phase of the writing project, such as a list, a plan or a scenario.
is equivalent to
Avant-textual witness c and (( has genetic stage op value list) or ( has genetic stage op value plan) or ( has genetic stage op value scenario))
is disjoint with
Diary entry c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Publication c, Publication part c

Pre-publication phase resourcec back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#PrepublicationPhaseResource

The witness that belongs to the pre-publication phase of the writing project, such as the final copy or the proofs.
is equivalent to
Avant-textual witness c and (( has genetic stage op value final copy) or ( has genetic stage op value proofs))
is disjoint with
Diary entry c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Publication c, Publication part c

Publicationc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Publication

The publication, e.g. the book or the journal article. As a subclass of fabio:Expression, the publication is the realisation of a work; it is embodied in manifestations that have one or more exemplars in single items. For example, the publication is the book, that can be referenced with bibliographical information such as author, title, publisher, date of publication. The publication differs from the individual exemplars of the book, for example from a copy of the book with authorial annotations in view of a new edition (i.e., an avant-textual witness).
has super-classes
Expression c
is in domain of
publication is reused in dossier op
is in range of
is part of publication op, results in publication op
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Endogenetic witness c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication part c, Witness c

Publication partc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#PublicationPart

The single part of a publication. For example, a chapter in a novel, a short story or a poem in a collection.
is in domain of
is part of publication op, publication part is reused in dossier op
is in range of
results in publication part op
is disjoint with
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Endogenetic witness c, Exogenetic witness c, Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Marginalia c, Other material c, Post-editorial phase resource c, Pre-compositional phase resource c, Pre-publication phase resource c, Publication c, Witness c

Witnessc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Witness

A witness is an existing instance of a text. Witnesses may be carried in any physical medium (e.g. paper, digital, oral) and traced with any technique and tool (e.g. handwritten, typed) and a single carrier may contain several witnesses. As a subclass of CRMtex:TX1_Written_Text, the witness is unique and characterised by the close relationship between the text and its support.
has super-classes
Written Text c
has sub-classes
Avant-textual witness c, Diary entry c, Documentation c, Endogenetic witness c, Exogenetic witness c, Marginalia c, Other material c
is in domain of
is after op, is before op, is member of dossier op
is in range of
is after op, is before op
is disjoint with
Genetic dossier c, Genetic stage c, Publication c, Publication part c

Written Textc back to ToC or Class ToC

IRI: http://www.cidoc-crm.org/extensions/crmtex/TX1_Written_Text

This class comprises visible or tactile marks (called glyphs or graphs), which relate in a systematic way to units of speech, intentionally traced (i.e., “written”) on some kind of physical support by using specific techniques and tools, with the purpose of conveying a message towards a given receiver or group of receivers.
has sub-classes
Witness c

Object Properties

dossier is part of dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#dossierIsPartOfDossier

The genetic dossier is part of another genetic dossier. For example, the different sections of a book may each have a different genesis, documented in different dossiers; the dossier of each section is part of the dossier of the book.
has domain
Genetic dossier c
has range
Genetic dossier c

dossier is reused in dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#dossierIsReusedInDossier

The genetic dossier is reused in another genetic dossier. This property applies to a dossier that does not result in a publication, i.e. an unpublished writing project, whose materials are reused in another project.
has super-properties
is reused in dossier op
has domain
Genetic dossier c
has range
Genetic dossier c

has genetic stageop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#hasGeneticStage

The genetic stage of an avant-textual witness. The possible values are defined as instances of geno:GeneticStage.
has domain
Avant-textual witness c
has range
Genetic stage c

is afterop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#isAfter

The witness comes chronologically after another witness in the genetic dossier. Defining the chronological succession of the witnesses means ordering them (fr. classement des manuscrits).
has domain
Witness c
has range
Witness c
is inverse of
is before op

is beforeop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#isBefore

The witness comes chronologically before another witness in the genetic dossier. Defining the chronological succession of the witnesses means ordering them (fr. classement des manuscrits).
has domain
Witness c
has range
Witness c
is inverse of
is after op

is member of dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#isMemberOfDossier

The witness is a member of the dossier. The same witness can be a member of multiple dossiers.
has domain
Witness c
has range
Genetic dossier c

is part of publicationop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#isPartOfPublication

The section of a publication is part of the whole publication.
has domain
Publication part c
has range
Publication c

is reused in dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#isReusedInDossier

A super-property that groups all the properties that describe the reuse of a resource (a publication, publication part or dossier) in a genetic dossier.

publication is reused in dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#publicationIsReusedInDossier

The publication is repurposed for another writing project, documented by a genetic dossier.
has super-properties
is reused in dossier op
has domain
Publication c
has range
Genetic dossier c

publication part is reused in dossierop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#publicationPartIsReusedInDossier

The publication part (section, chapter, etc.) is repurposed for another writing project, documented by a genetic dossier.
has super-properties
is reused in dossier op
has domain
Publication part c
has range
Genetic dossier c

results in publicationop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#resultsInPublication

The genetic dossier results in a publication.
has domain
Genetic dossier c
has range
Publication c

results in publication partop back to ToC or Object Property ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#resultsInPublicationPart

The genetic dossier results in a part of a publication (section, chapter, etc.).
has domain
Genetic dossier c
has range
Publication part c

Named Individuals

clear copyni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#ClearCopy

belongs to
Genetic stage c

draftni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Draft

belongs to
Genetic stage c

final copyni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#FinalCopy

belongs to
Genetic stage c

listni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#List

belongs to
Genetic stage c

planni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Plan

belongs to
Genetic stage c

proofsni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Proofs

belongs to
Genetic stage c

published itemni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#PublishedItem

belongs to
Genetic stage c

scenarioni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Scenario

belongs to
Genetic stage c

sketchni back to ToC or Named Individual ToC

IRI: https://w3id.org/geno#Sketch

belongs to
Genetic stage c

Legend back to ToC

c: Classes
op: Object Properties
ni: Named Individuals

References back to ToC

Davis, Ian, and Richard Newman. 2005. “Expression of Core FRBR Concepts in RDF.” https://vocab.org/frbr/core#term-Expression.
De Biasi, Pierre-Marc. 1996. “What Is a Literary Draft? Toward a Functional Typology of Genetic Documentation.” Yale French Studies, no. 89: 26–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/2930337.
———. 2004. “Toward a Science of Literature: Manuscript Analysis and the Genesis of the Work.” In Genetic Criticism: Texts and Avant-Textes, edited by Jed Deppman, Daniel Ferrer, and Michael Groden, 26–68. Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Press.
———. 2020. “De l’intertextualité à l’exogenèse.” Genesis. Manuscrits – Recherche – Invention, no. 51: 11–28.
Mahrer, Rudolf. 2017. “La plume après le plomb.” Genesis. Manuscrits – Recherche – Invention, no. 44: 17–38.

Acknowledgments back to ToC

The authors would like to thank Silvio Peroni for developing LODE, a Live OWL Documentation Environment, which is used for representing the Cross Referencing Section of this document, as well as Graffoo, a graphical framework for OWL Ontologies; and Daniel Garijo for developing Widoco, the program used to create the template used in this documentation.