\label{sec:conceptual}
A key premise of RO-Crate is the existence of a wide variety of resources on the Web that can help describe research. As such, RO-Crate relies on the Linked Data principles [@doi:10.2200/S00334ED1V01Y201102WBE001]. Figure \ref{fig:conceptual} shows the main conceptual elements involved in an RO-Crate: The RO-Crate Metadata File (top) describes the Research Object using structured metadata including external references, coupled with the contained artefacts (bottom) bundled and described by the RO-Crate.
The conceptual notion of a Research Object [@doi:10.1016/j.future.2011.08.004] is thus realised with the RO-Crate model and serialised using Linked Data constructs within the RO-Crate metadata file.