Citation and attribution management methods and systems

A system comprising:

• one or more memory units each operable to store at least one program;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the one or more memory units, in which the at least one program, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform the steps of:
• accessing, at a client device, a first artifact and artifact metadata corresponding to the artifact;
• creating, at the client device, an artifact cryptographic digest corresponding to the artifact to certify existence of the artifact;
• transmitting, at the client device, the artifact cryptographic digest and artifact metadata to a server;
• adding, at the server device, the artifact cryptographic digest to a block chain of the server device;
• and
• adding, at the server device, the artifact cryptographic digest, the artifact metadata and at least one of:
• a reference to a location of the first artifact and the first artifact to a data storage device of the server device separate and distinct from the block chain to reference the artifact cryptographic digest on the block chain
• receiving, at the client device, a request to post citation data to the block chain at the server;
• creating, at the client device, a citation cryptographic digest corresponding to the citation data;
• transmitting, at the client device, the citation cryptographic digest and citation data to the server;
• adding, at the server, the citation cryptographic digest to the block chain;
• and
• adding, at the server, the citation data and the citation cryptographic digest to the data storage device;
• storing, at the server, an author attribution count for each author of the one or more artifacts stored on the block chain, wherein the author attribution count is representative of a number of instances where one or more artifacts of the author has been cited by other artifacts;
• after adding the citation cryptographic digest to the block chain, incrementing, at the server, the author attribution count for each author of a respective artifact cited in the citation data.