Knowledge bases and reference vocabularies for research
Reference work depends on authoritative identifiers: a standard term for a material, a stable id for a language, a canonical record for a person or a recording. Kahubi connects to Wikidata and Wikipedia, the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, Thesaurus of Geographic Names and Union List of Artist Names, Glottolog for the world’s languages, the OEIS for integer sequences, MusicBrainz for music and Project Gutenberg for public-domain texts.
Use them to normalise names and terms in a dataset, give background before you turn to primary sources, or check a fact against a curated record. Answers cite Q-ids, AAT and TGN ids, glottocodes and A-numbers.
7 sources you can connect
- Project GutenbergSearch and read 70,000+ public-domain books.Community server
- Getty Vocabularies (AAT, TGN, ULAN)Controlled vocabularies for art, architecture, historical place names and artist names.Hosted by Kahubi
- OEIS (integer sequences)The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences: identify a sequence from its terms.Hosted by Kahubi
- WikidataStructured knowledge graph: entity search, statements and SPARQL queries.Official server
- WikipediaArticle search, summaries, full articles and sections in any language edition.Community server
- GlottologReference catalogue of the world’s languages, dialects and families.Hosted by Kahubi
- MusicBrainzOpen music encyclopedia: artists, works, releases, recordings and relationships.Community server
Questions researchers ask these sources
“Find the passages in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman where Wollstonecraft discusses the education of girls.”
The book record and the relevant passages from the public-domain text.
Project Gutenberg“What is the preferred Art & Architecture Thesaurus term for "tempera", and what is its scope note?”
The AAT concept with id, preferred label and scope note, so catalogue entries use consistent terms.
Getty Vocabularies“Which sequence starts 1, 2, 5, 14, 42, 132, and what does it count?”
The A-number (Catalan numbers), its definition, formulas and key references.
OEIS“Resolve these 40 historical place names to Wikidata items with coordinates.”
QIDs, labels and coordinates, with ambiguous names flagged for you to decide.
Wikidata“Give me a short background on the Swedish welfare state model and the primary sources the Wikipedia article cites.”
A summary of the article with its section list, and the references it points to so you can cite those instead.
Wikipedia“How is Meänkieli classified, and what is its ISO 639-3 code?”
The languoid’s glottocode, ISO code, classification tree and coordinates.
Glottolog
Frequently asked questions
Should I cite Wikipedia?
Can it run SPARQL queries?
What is a knowledge base useful for in a thesis?
Browse other sources
Search knowledge bases sources in one research chat
Free to start. Connect a source in one click and get answers that cite the records they came from.