# Reconciliation of RDF* and Property Graphs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.3288 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.3288/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Sep 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [CypherBench: Towards Precise Retrieval over Full-scale Modern Knowledge Graphs in the LLM Era](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18702/) (2024)
- [Construction of Knowledge Graphs: State and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.11509/) (2023)
- [Uncertainty Management in the Construction of Knowledge Graphs: a Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16929/) (2024)
- [Automating construction contract review using knowledge graph-enhanced large language models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12132/) (2023)
- [Common Foundations for SHACL, ShEx, and PG-Schema](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01295/) (2025)
- [Expressive Reasoning Graph Store: A Unified Framework for Managing RDF and Property Graph Databases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05828/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Both the notion of Property Graphs (PG) and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) are commonly used models for representing graph-shaped data. While there exist some system-specific solutions to convert data from one model to the other, these solutions are not entirely compatible with one another and none of them appears to be based on a formal foundation. In fact, for the PG model, there does not even exist a commonly agreed-upon formal definition. The aim of this document is to reconcile both models formally. To this end, the document proposes a formalization of the PG model and introduces well-defined transformations between PGs and RDF. As a result, the document provides a basis for the following two innovations: On one hand, by implementing the RDF-to-PG transformations defined in this document, PG-based systems can enable their users to load RDF data and make it accessible in a compatible, system-independent manner using, e.g., the graph traversal language Gremlin or the declarative graph query language Cypher. On the other hand, the PG-to-RDF transformation in this document enables RDF data management systems to support compatible, system-independent queries over the content of Property Graphs by using the standard RDF query language SPARQL. Additionally, this document represents a foundation for systematic research on relationships between the two models and between their query languages.