Direct answer
An entity is a person, organisation, brand, product, service, place, work, event or concept that must be distinguished from other things. A name is only a label; the entity is the real person or thing to which that label refers.
In plain language
Imagine two people with the same name. Their dates of birth, jobs and identities are different. A system that looks only at the name may confuse them. An entity record contains the distinctions needed to show which person is meant.
Why this matters
If the wrong entity is resolved, a valid source may be attached to the wrong person or company. Every later step involving representation, citation or recommendation is then built on the original mistake.
Do not confuse
- A name is an entity's label; an identity record distinguishes that entity from others.
- A website is not the entity itself; it is a publication surface about the entity.
- A brand and the legal company operating it need not be the same entity.
What should you do?
- Choose the entity type explicitly.
- Keep canonical names, alternative names and former names in separate fields.
- State ownership, parent-company, product and person relationships clearly.
- Date properties that change by geography or over time.
- Preserve the same identity links across languages.
How do you audit it?
- Were different entities with the same name separated?
- Were the brand, company, product and person confused with one another?
- Do relationships have a source and a validity date?
- Do different languages resolve to the same entity?
- Are former properties presented as current information?
Limit
The existence of an entity record does not by itself prove that every property written about that entity is correct.
Remember in one sentence
Similar names do not establish identical identity.
Sources for this record
- S08Schema.org, *Data Model*Standard and community vocabulary
- S12ORCID, *ORCID Trust*Identity infrastructure
- S13ROR, *ROR Data Structure*Identity infrastructure