Named graph

Named graphs are a key concept of Semantic Web architecture in which a set of Resource Description Framework statements (a graph) are identified using a URI,[1] allowing descriptions to be made of that set of statements such as context, provenance information or other such metadata.

Additionally, trust can be managed through the publisher applying a digital signature to the data in the named graph.

Prior to the publication of the papers describing named graphs, there was considerable discussion about fulfilling their role within a store by using an arity greater than that of RDF triple statements: where triples have the form subject predicate object, quads would have a form along the lines of subject predicate object context.

[5] A paper from the WWW 2005 conference by Carroll et al. includes a formal definition of named graphs.

[6] There is currently no specification for named graphs in themselves beyond that described in Carroll et al. (2005)[6] and Carroll and Stickler (2004)[7] (which includes syntaxes for representing named graphs), but they do form part of the SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language specification.