Methods for semantics-based citation-pairing information

1. A computer-implemented method of semantically linking a citing document to a cited document in a corpus of documents, the method comprising:

locating at least one citation present in the citing document;

determining a reason-for-citing for the at least one citation;

determining a cited-text-area present in the cited document, wherein the cited-text-area corresponds with the reason-for-citing, and the cited-text-area is determined by:

semantically comparing the reason-for-citing in the citing document with reasons-for-citing in the cited document;

generating a similarity value for each reason-for-citing in the cited document based on the semantic comparison with the reason-for-citing in the citing document; and

selecting the reason-for-citing in the cited document with a highest similarity value as the cited-text-area of the cited document; and

populating, by a computing device, a citation entry of a citation-pairing metadata file, the citation entry comprising a citing-document identifier, a reason-for-citing identifier, a cited-document identifier, and a cited-text-area identifier, wherein the citation-pairing metadata file comprises a plurality of citation entries and is stored separately from the citing document and the cited document.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the reason-for-citing is determined by a reason-for-citing algorithm.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises populating the citation entry with the highest similarity value.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising populating a reason-for-citing metadata file with a plurality of reasons-for-citing entries, each reason-for-citing entry comprising a document identifier, a reason-for-citing identifier, and a string of text corresponding to the reason-for-citing identifier, wherein each reason-for-citing entry corresponds with the reasons-for-citing in the citing document and the cited-text-areas in the cited document.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the citation-pairing metadata file is configured such that:

selection of a reason-for-citing identifier of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected reason-for-citing identifier; and

selection of a cited-text-area of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected cited-text-area.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the citing-document identifier contains linking information that accesses a text of the citing document.

7. A computer-implemented method of storing semantics-based citation-pairing information comprising:

generating, by a computing device, a citation-pairing metadata file;

writing a plurality of citation entries to the citation-pairing metadata file for individual ones of a plurality of documents included in a corpus of documents, each citation entry comprising:

a citing-document identifier corresponding to a citing document,

a reason-for-citing identifier corresponding to a reason-for-citing for a citation of the citing document,

a cited-document identifier corresponding to a cited document cited by the citing document, and

a cited-text-area identifier corresponding to an area of text in the cited document that is cited by the citing document, wherein the area of text in the cited document is determined by:

semantically comparing the reason-for-citing in the citing document with reasons-for-citing in the cited document;

generating a similarity value for each reason-for-citing in the cited document based on the semantic comparison with the reason-for-citing in the citing document; and

selecting the reason-for-citing in the cited document with a highest similarity value as the cited-text-area of the cited document; and

electronically storing the citation-pairing metadata file separately from the plurality of documents.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the reason-for-citing is determined by a reason-for-citing algorithm.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises populating the plurality of citation entries with the highest similarity value for each selected cited reason-for-citing.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , further comprising populating a reason-for-citing metadata file with a plurality of reason-for-citing entries, each reason-for-citing entry comprising a document identifier, a reason-for-citing identifier, and a string of text corresponding to the reason-for-citing identifier, wherein each reason-for-citing entry corresponds with the reasons-for-citing in the citing document or the cited-text-areas in the cited document.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the citation-pairing metadata file is configured such that:

selection of a reason-for-citing identifier of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected reason-for-citing identifier; and

selection of a cited-text-area of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected cited-text-area.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the citing-document identifier contains linking information that accesses a text of a selected citing document.

13. A computer-readable memory comprising a set of computer-readable instructions for carrying out a method of semantically linking a citing document to a cited document that, when used in conjunction with a computer having a processor, causes the processor to:

determine a reason-for-citing for at least one citation present in the citing document;

determine a cited-text-area present in the cited document, wherein the cited-text-area corresponds with the reason-for-citing, and the cited-text-area is determined by:

semantically comparing the reason-for-citing in the citing document with reasons-for-citing in the cited document;

generating a similarity value for each reason-for-citing in the cited document based on the semantic comparison with the reason-for-citing in the citing document; and

selecting the reason-for-citing in the cited document with a highest similarity value as the cited-text-area of the cited document; and

populate a citation entry of a citation-pairing metadata file with a citing-document identifier, a reason-for-citing identifier, a cited-document identifier, and a cited-text-area identifier, wherein the citation-pairing metadata file comprises a plurality of citation entries and is stored separately from the citing document and the cited document.

14. The computer-readable memory of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises populating the citation entry with the highest similarity value.

15. The computer-readable memory of claim 13 , further comprising populating a reason-for-citing metadata file with a plurality of reason-for-citing entries, each reason-for-citing entry comprising a document identifier, a reason-for-citing identifier, and a string of text corresponding to the reason-for-citing identifier, wherein each reason-for-citing entry corresponds with reasons-for-citing in the citing document and cited-text-areas in the cited document.

16. The computer-readable memory of claim 15 , wherein the citation-pairing metadata file is configured such that:

selection of a reason-for-citing identifier of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected reason-for-citing identifier; and

selection of a cited-text-area of a selected citation entry accesses the reason-for-citing metadata file to retrieve the string of text associated with the selected cited-text-area.

17. The computer-readable memory of claim 13 , wherein the citing-document identifier contains linking information that accesses a text of a selected citing document.