
systems such as Stardog, OpenLink’s Virtuoso, Ontotext GraphDB, Allegro-
Graph, Apache Jena, and more recently also Oxigraph, but also query standards,
such as SPARQL2and its extension SPARQL-star3as well as RDF Schema,
which allows describing classes of RDF resources and properties4. In contrast,
many graph database systems, such as Neo4j, TigerGraph, JanusGraph, Redis-
Graph, and SAP HANA are based on different variations of the property graph
model [31] and different query languages [9,10]. Unfortunately, RDF-star graphs
and property graphs are not entirely compatible with one another. Although they
both describe data through graphs, their underlying models and semantics are
different, leading to many data interoperability issues [3, 22]. Metadata or edge
properties in RDF-star can be modeled as separate nodes or RDF-star triples.
In contrast, edge properties can only be represented as literal key-value pairs in
property graphs. In general, it is challenging to transform an RDF-star graph
fully into a property graph because of the rich expressiveness of the former. The
heterogeneity between the two models and their frameworks makes it necessary
to study their interoperability, i.e., the ability to map one model to another for
data exchange and sharing [3].
The mapping between the two models is crucial for data exchange, data in-
tegration as well as reusability of systems and tools between the frameworks.
RDF-star, specifically the RDF model, is recognized as a web-native model that
supports data exchange and sharing across different sources because of its formal
semantics and the universal uniqueness of resources using IRIs. RDF is a com-
mon and flexible model for knowledge representation, and that is exemplified
by knowledge graphs that cover a broad set of domains, such as DBpedia [23],
YAGO [30], and Wikidata [33]. On the contrary, even with the wide adoption
of property graph engines, property graphs lack many essential features, such as
a schema language, a standard query language, standard data serialization for-
mats, etc. Achieving interoperability and reliable transformations between the
two frameworks will finally enable us to exploit the benefits of both models.
The transformation of property graphs to RDF-star has been explored re-
cently [21], and basic transformation rules for property graphs to RDF-star were
proposed [4,18]. However, the latter does not cover all RDF-star constructs and
allows for multiple alternatives.
Listing 1.1: An example RDF-star graph in Turtle star format
@prefix ex: < htt p :/ / e xa mpl e . or g /> .
<< ex:Alex ex:a ge 25 > > ex: c e rtai nty 0.5 .
Consider, for instance, the example illustrated in Figure 1(a). If we start
with the triple (ex:Alex,ex:age,25), then we could represent the RDF ele-
ment (Alex) as a node in a property graph, as shown in Figure 1(b). This node
would then have a property (age,25) and the RDF triple would be represented
2SPARQL 1.1 Query Language: https://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/
3SPARQL-star Query Language: https://w3c.github.io/rdf-star/cg-spec/editors_draft.html#
sparql-star
4RDF Schema 1.1: https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
2