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Informative Reference Record Metadata Profile v0.2

Status

This profile is an informative ARCS metadata profile for crosswalks, mappings, and other informative reference records. It is not part of the normative ARCS control text and does not define a NIST OLIR submission format.

Purpose

The profile identifies fields that help preserve the lifecycle, provenance, review posture, and appropriate use of machine-readable or human-readable informative references. It is intended for reference records that map one framework, standard, regulation, profile, protocol, or control set to another.

Suggested fields

Field	Purpose
source_document	Identifies the framework, standard, regulation, profile, or protocol being mapped from.
source_version	Identifies the source version, publication date, revision, or edition.
source_element_id	Identifies the source clause, section, control, outcome, subcategory, principle, or element.
target_document	Identifies the framework, standard, regulation, profile, or protocol being mapped to.
target_version	Identifies the target version, publication date, revision, or edition.
target_element_id	Identifies the target clause, section, control, outcome, subcategory, principle, or element.
relationship_type	Describes the relationship asserted by the mapping, such as supports, overlaps, informs, complements, or outside scope.
mapping_strength	Indicates the strength or fit of the mapping, where used.
publisher	Identifies the publisher or maintainer of the mapping record.
review_status	Records whether the mapping has been reviewed, accepted, requires review, or is provisional.
generation_status	States whether the mapping was human-authored, AI-assisted, tool-generated, or hybrid.
scope_note	Preserves relevant limitations, non-equivalence statements, and outside-scope boundaries.
supersedes	Identifies prior mapping records replaced by this record.
superseded_by	Identifies later mapping records that replace this record.
withdrawal_status	Identifies whether the mapping has been withdrawn or deprecated.
persistent_url	Provides a stable URL, identifier, or citation for the mapping record.

The field names above are the canonical machine-readable names used by the ARCS Reference Data schema. Human-readable pages may use shorter labels such as source, target, review status, or persistent reference where the underlying record fields remain identifiable.

Lifecycle treatment

A reference record should be reviewed when either mapped source changes, when the relationship type is reused in a new context, or when automated tooling begins to rely on the mapping for compliance analysis, procurement review, audit preparation, or risk management.

A superseded or withdrawn mapping should remain identifiable if it was previously published or used in downstream work. Removal without a lifecycle record may make it harder for later reviewers to understand why an earlier analysis relied on a different mapping.

In practice, a superseded record should continue to resolve at its persistent_url, with withdrawal_status, supersedes, and superseded_by populated where applicable.

AI-assisted mapping

If AI tools assist in proposing a mapping, the accepted mapping should be distinguishable from the AI output that proposed it. The AI output may be retained as a deliberative or process record, but it should not be treated as equivalent to the reviewed informative reference record.

When consuming machine-readable reference data, a reviewer should be able to determine from generation_status whether the record was human-authored, machine-assisted, machine-generated, or otherwise reviewed. That field does not determine correctness; it preserves provenance for later review, audit, or withdrawal decisions.

Applied in published ARCS reference data

This metadata profile is applied through the ARCS Reference Data hub, the published ARCS crosswalk registry, and the machine-readable companion exports for published ARCS crosswalks and profiles. The human-readable crosswalk pages provide the interpretive source; the JSON and CSV exports provide companion reference records for machine-readable use.

Boundary statement

This metadata profile supports record governance only. It does not determine whether a mapping is correct, complete, official, legally sufficient, or acceptable to any regulator, auditor, standards body, or conformity assessment provider.

This document is informative. It is not part of the normative ARCS standard.