Protocols & Standards

Technical specifications, data formats, API protocols, and editorial standards governing the Aevum Encyclopedia platform. This document defines how data is structured, exchanged, verified, and maintained across all services.

Overview

Aevum Encyclopedia adheres to open, interoperable, and academically rigorous standards. All public APIs, data exports, and internal pipelines comply with W3C specifications, RFC standards, and peer-reviewed editorial frameworks.

Key principles governing our standards:

• Machine-readable metadata for all entries
• Deterministic versioning with full audit trails
• Cross-namespace compatibility (Schema.org, FOAF, Dublin Core)
• Zero-knowledge cryptographic verification for citations

Data Formats & Schemas

All structured data is serialized using JSON-LD by default, with RDF/XML and Turtle available for legacy integrations. Entries follow the AevumKnowledgeGraphSchema v3.2 specification.

API & Access Protocols

Public and authenticated interfaces follow RESTful conventions with GraphQL fallback for complex graph traversals. All endpoints require HTTPS and support OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect.

Authentication & Rate Limiting

HTTP RequestCopy
GET /api/v5/articles/{id} HTTP/1.1
Host: api.aevumencyclopedia.org
Authorization: Bearer <access_token>
Accept: application/ld+json
X-Request-ID: req_8f3a2c91

# Rate Limits (Authenticated)
# - Search: 120 req/min
# - Read: 600 req/min
# - Write/Contribute: 30 req/min

Webhooks & Event Streaming

Real-time notifications for editorial changes, citation updates, and fact-checking events are delivered via signed webhooks. Payloads use SHA-256 HMAC verification.

Editorial & Citation Framework

Content integrity is enforced through a multi-stage verification protocol. All submissions undergo automated plausibility checks followed by domain-expert review.

Citation Standards

Aevum supports hybrid citation formatting, automatically converting between major academic styles while preserving source metadata:

• APA 7th / Chicago 17th / MLA 9th (auto-detected)
• DOI, ISBN, ISSN, and arXiv ID resolution via Crossref & DataCite
• Cryptographic hash anchoring for versioned sources (IPFS/Arweave optional)

Peer-Review Workflow

Workflow StatesCopy
draft → submitted → ai_screen → expert_review → approved → published
                                 ↓          ↓
                             flagged ← revision ← rejected

Semantic Web & RDF Interoperability

All entities are mapped to persistent URIs following the pattern https://ae-vum.org/entity/{namespace}/{slug}. Relationships use standard RDF predicates where applicable, with custom ontologies for domain-specific semantics.

Versioning & Lifecycle Management

API and schema versions follow Semantic Versioning. Breaking changes are never introduced to stable endpoints. Deprecation notices are issued 12 months in advance via header Deprecation: true and Sunset: <date>.