Everything about Referential integrity

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

1. Read the overview: Referential integrityA 5-minute orientation
2. Skim a recent paper: Asyndetic complementation and referential integration in SpanishInfluential work since 2022
3. Pick up a classic book: Database system conceptsThe most-reprinted book on the subject
4. Read the landmark paper: Referential integrity quality metricsCited 29 times
5. Go sideways: Foreign keyA closely related topic
6. Go sideways: Relational databaseA closely related topic

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

• Referential integrity quality metrics

  Carlos Ordonez, Javier García-García · 2008 · Decision Support Systems · 29 citations

• Empirical validation of referential integrity metrics

  Coral Calero, Mario Piattini, Marcela Genero · 2001 · Information and Software Technology · 20 citations

• Extended aggregations for databases with referential integrity issues

  Javier García-García, Carlos Ordonez · 2010 · Data & Knowledge Engineering · 10 citations

• Safe referential integrity and null constraint structures in relational databases

  Victor M Markowitz · 1994 · Information Systems · 8 citations

• Access path support for referential integrity in SQL2

  Theo Härder, Joachim Reinert · 1996 · The VLDB Journal The International Journal on Very Large Data Bases · 6 citations

• A design specification and a server implementation of the inverse referential integrity constraints

  Slavica Aleksic, Sonja Ristic, Ivan Lukovic · 2013 · Computer Science and Information Systems · 4 citations

• The semantics of an extended referential integrity for a multilevel secure relational data model

  Sang-Won Lee, Yong-Han Kim, Hyoung-Joo Kim · 2004 · Data & Knowledge Engineering · 4 citations

• Interarea Power System Oscillations Damping via AI-based Referential Integrity Variable-Structure Control

  M. A. Ebrahim, H. S. Ramadan · 2016 · International Journal of Emerging Electric Power Systems · 3 citations

🆕 Influential since 2022

• Asyndetic complementation and referential integration in Spanish

  Giulia Mazzola, Bert Cornillie, Malte Rosemeyer · 2022 · Journal of Historical Linguistics · 8 citations

• Referential Integrity Framework for Lithium Battery Characterization and State of Charge Estimation

  Amel Benmouna, Mohamed Becherif, Mohamed Ahmed Ebrahim · 2025 · Batteries · 2 citations

• Foreign Key Constraints to Maintain Referential Integrity in Distributed Database in Microservices Architecture

  Shamsa Kanwal, Nauman Riaz Chaudhry, Reema Choudhary · 2025 · International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications · 0 citations

• Healthcare EDI Transaction Lifecycles Embedded with a Multi-Layer Verification Framework to Ensure Referential Integrity

  Devi Manoharan · 2025 · Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management · 0 citations

• Hybrid Vector–Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Enterprise Resource Planning: Contextual Grounding, Referential Integrity, and Hallucination Mitigation

  Vishnu Vardhan Reddy Yeruva · 2026 · International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research · 0 citations

📚 Books worth reading

• Database system conceptsAbraham Silberschatz · 1997
• Access database design & programmingSteven Roman · 1997
• 📕Referential integrity in the context of multimedia databasesJerry Scholdski · 2004
• 📕Extending a relational database with deferred referential integrity checking and intelligent joinsStephanie Cammarata · 1989
• DB2/400 Design ConceptsSharon L. Hoffman · 1996
• 📕Database theory and applicationDTA (Conference) (2009 Cheju Island, Korea) · 2009
• ProvenanceMoreau, Luc (College teacher) · 2013
• 📕Latin linguistics in the early 21st centurySweden) International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics (16th 2011 Uppsala · 2015

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics

• Foreign key A foreign key is a set of attributes in a table that refers to the primary key of another table, linking these two tables. In the context of relational…
• Relational database A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System…
• Unique key In relational database management systems, a unique key is a candidate key. All the candidate keys of a relation can uniquely identify the records of the…
• Data definition language In the context of SQL, data definition language (DDL) is a syntax for creating and modifying database objects such as tables, indices, and users. DDL statements…
• Primary key In the relational model of databases, a primary key is a designated set of attributes (column(s)) that can reliably identify and distinguish between each…
• Propagation constraint In database systems, a propagation constraint "details what should happen to a related table when we update a row or rows of a target table" (Paul Beynon-Davies…
• Relational model The relational model (RM) is an approach to managing data using a structure and language consistent with first-order predicate logic, first described in…
• Virtuoso Universal Server Virtuoso Universal Server is a middleware and database engine hybrid that combines the functionality of a traditional relational database management system…