About Concepts

• A concept is abstract and language-independent; it exists independently of the terms, names, symbols, or identifiers used to denote it.
• A concept may be represented by one or more terms (preferred terms, admitted terms, synonyms) in one or multiple languages (see context and relationships).
• A concept may participate in semantic relationships with other concepts, such as hierarchical (broader/narrower), associative, or equivalence relationships.
• Definitions, scope notes, and usage constraints describe the concept; terms label it.

Distinguishing terms from related entities

• Concept vs term: a concept is the meaning; a term is the linguistic designation of that meaning.
• Concept vs physical thing: a concept is a mental abstraction; a physical thing is a concrete or individual instance.
• Concept vs class (in data modelling): a concept may correspond to a class, but the concept is semantic, whereas the class is a structural implementation.

Concept metadata

1. Concept text (the name of the concept)
2. The definition
3. Description of concept (not it's definition; a short overview or an explanation of its scope)
4. Note: add any other information that is relevant (e.g., a guidance note on the use of this concept)

Context

1. Audience: who is the intended audience for this definition (e.g., general public, employees, students)
2. Context (also known as register; e.g., academic, scientific, formal informal)
3. Domain or discipline this concept belongs to or is associated with
4. Sector (i.e., business sector)
5. Jurisdiction (i.e., country)
6. Language: designate which language this term has been added using (e.g., English)

Relationships

1. Relationships with specific terms:
   • Select the relationships type and use a shortcut key to tag another term to link them together
2. Collections: tags that identify what collection(s) you have added this term to
3. Documents: tags that identify what document(s) you have used this term in

Authority, Status, & Source

1. Authority refers to an organization or group that provided evidence for the use of this term (e.g., judicial, government, published)
   • Authority type: select the type of entity that provided authority for this term to exist
   • Add the description of the authority or use the shortcut key to select an existing person or oganization from your terminology data
2. Role: Select how you intend to use this concept:
   • Preferred: primarily the one to use
   • Admitted: a variety of this same terms
   • Deprecated: this concept is no long er in use
3. Status: Identify the status of adding this term
   • Draft: needs more info
   • Under review: by another person
   • Approved for use but not yet published
   • Published and available
   • There is a wide variety of status stages (see also 'Terminology workflow')
4. Source refers to the external documentary evidence you used for compiling this record
   • The title of the reference work that contains this evidence (the work should be in your reference library)
   • Use the backslash key and enter the title to link the reference record
   • Pinpoint the exact pages of the work from which this term is derived
   • Open the library record for this source by clicking the library icon
   • Add a new reference record to your library by clicking the + icon

Adding a glossary into a document

1. A glossary smart list will produce a list of all records found in your document across all sections
2. A list can be generated for concepts, terms, people name, place names, organization names, event names
3. A table of abbreviations can be generated
4. See Style Guide / Terminology for editing the format of smart lists

Tips

• Create different collections for easy maintenance, exporting, or sharing
• We do not produce a list of work items, quotes, paraphrase, text blocks, or websites as these are generally not required when writing documents.
• You can export any collection in full directly from the collection record
• If a term has been added in multiple places and needs updating, you can do so by editing the record and it will automatically update all instances
  • Names: change a character name in a book you are writing
  • Places: Change the way you refer to a place
  • Fix any typo across all sections
• Work terms can be used for recording standards or competencies
  • Description: Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Math & English Language Arts in the U.S., defining K-12 learning expectations.
  • Link to an abbreviation; e.g., CCSS

See also

• Adding a collection of terms
• Exporting a collection of terms
• Annotations / Add terms
• Style Guide / Terminology smart lists