The ReferenceDocument class is used to identify the documents that are referenced within the reporting event. Each reference document has a name and location, and is assigned an id value. If needed, the optional description and label attributes may be used to record, respectively, a detailed description and/or a short description of the reference document.

The ARS ReferenceDocument class corresponds with the Define-XML def:leaf element that is referenced in the ARM for Define-XML specification:

Reference documents may contain either documentation (e.g., specifications for analyses, representations of outputs) or programming code.

Once an identifier value has been assigned for a reference document, references to the document as a whole, or to specific parts of the document, may be made using the DocumentReference class.