### INTRODUCTION The [National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) initiative](https://www.nfdi.de/) has seen the establishment of various consortia, each dedicated to developing a research data infrastructure tailored to its respective domain. To facilitate interoperability across these consortia, the NFDIcore ontology (prefix nfdicore) has been developed and serves as a mid level ontology for representing metadata about NFDI resources such as individuals, organizations, projects, data portals, etc. The hereby introduced ontology module, MEMO, intends to complement the existing NFDIcore ontology with concepts for the historically oriented sciences. Recognizing the diverse needs of consortia, NFDIcore establishes mappings to a wide array of standards across domains, including the [Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)](https://basic-formal-ontology.org/) and [schema.org](https://schema.org/), which is crucial for advancing knowledge representation, data exchange, and collaboration across diverse domains. To answer domain-specific research questions, NFDIcore is extended following a modular approach, as e.g. with the culture ontology module [CTO](https://gitlab.rlp.net/adwmainz/nfdi4culture/knowledge-graph/culture-ontology), matwerk ontology module [MWO](https://git.rwth-aachen.de/nfdi-matwerk/ta-oms/mwo), etc.
Sarah Ondraszek, Oleksandra Bruns, Tabea Tietz, Etienne Posthumus, Jörg Waitelonis, Harald Sack
MEMO Module
Ontology Specification
NFDI4Memory Module - A module of NFDIcore
editor preferred label
editor preferred term
editor preferred term~editor preferred label
The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property preferred by the ontology developers. (US-English)
PERSON:Daniel Schober
example of usage
A phrase describing how a term should be used and/or a citation to a work which uses it. May also include other kinds of examples that facilitate immediate understanding, such as widely know prototypes or instances of a class, or cases where a relation is said to hold.
A phrase describing how a class name should be used. May also include other kinds of examples that facilitate immediate understanding of a class semantics, such as widely known prototypical subclasses or instances of the class. Although essential for high level terms, examples for low level terms (e.g., Affymetrix HU133 array) are not.
definition
The official OBI definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions.
The official definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions.
2012-04-05: Barry Smith The official OBI definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property: 'Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions' is terrible. Can you fix to something like: A statement of necessary and sufficient conditions explaining the meaning of an expression referring to a class or property. Alan Ruttenberg Your proposed definition is a reasonable candidate, except that it is very common that necessary and sufficient conditions are not given. Mostly they are necessary, occasionally they are necessary and sufficient or just sufficient. Often they use terms that are not themselves defined and so they effectively can't be evaluated by those criteria. On the specifics of the proposed definition: We don't have definitions of 'meaning' or 'expression' or 'property'. For 'reference' in the intended sense I think we use the term 'denotation'. For 'expression', I think we you mean symbol, or identifier. For 'meaning' it differs for class and property. For class we want documentation that let's the intended reader determine whether an entity is instance of the class, or not. For property we want documentation that let's the intended reader determine, given a pair of potential relata, whether the assertion that the relation holds is true. The 'intended reader' part suggests that we also specify who, we expect, would be able to understand the definition, and also generalizes over human and computer reader to include textual and logical definition. Personally, I am more comfortable weakening definition to documentation, with instructions as to what is desirable. We also have the outstanding issue of how to aim different definitions to different audiences. A clinical audience reading chebi wants a different sort of definition documentation/definition from a chemistry trained audience, and similarly there is a need for a definition that is adequate for an ontologist to work with.
editor note
An administrative note intended for its editor. It may not be included in the publication version of the ontology, so it should contain nothing necessary for end users to understand the ontology.
term editor
Name of editor entering the term in the file. The term editor is a point of contact for information regarding the term. The term editor may be, but is not always, the author of the definition, which may have been worked upon by several people
20110707, MC: label update to term editor and definition modified accordingly. See https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/115.
definition source
Formal citation, e.g. identifier in external database to indicate / attribute source(s) for the definition. Free text indicate / attribute source(s) for the definition. EXAMPLE: Author Name, URI, MeSH Term C04, PUBMED ID, Wiki uri on 31.01.2007
Discussion on obo-discuss mailing-list, see http://bit.ly/hgm99w
curator note
An administrative note of use for a curator but of no use for a user
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
is part of
my brain is part of my body (continuant parthood, two material entities)
my stomach cavity is part of my stomach (continuant parthood, immaterial entity is part of material entity)
this day is part of this year (occurrent parthood)
a core relation that holds between a part and its whole
Everything is part of itself. Any part of any part of a thing is itself part of that thing. Two distinct things cannot be part of each other.
Occurrents are not subject to change and so parthood between occurrents holds for all the times that the part exists. Many continuants are subject to change, so parthood between continuants will only hold at certain times, but this is difficult to specify in OWL. See http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/docs/temporal-semantics/
Parthood requires the part and the whole to have compatible classes: only an occurrent can be part of an occurrent; only a process can be part of a process; only a continuant can be part of a continuant; only an independent continuant can be part of an independent continuant; only an immaterial entity can be part of an immaterial entity; only a specifically dependent continuant can be part of a specifically dependent continuant; only a generically dependent continuant can be part of a generically dependent continuant. (This list is not exhaustive.) A continuant cannot be part of an occurrent: use 'participates in'. An occurrent cannot be part of a continuant: use 'has participant'. A material entity cannot be part of an immaterial entity: use 'has location'. A specifically dependent continuant cannot be part of an independent continuant: use 'inheres in'. An independent continuant cannot be part of a specifically dependent continuant: use 'bearer of'.
part_of
part of
has part
my body has part my brain (continuant parthood, two material entities)
my stomach has part my stomach cavity (continuant parthood, material entity has part immaterial entity)
this year has part this day (occurrent parthood)
a core relation that holds between a whole and its part
Everything has itself as a part. Any part of any part of a thing is itself part of that thing. Two distinct things cannot have each other as a part.
Parthood requires the part and the whole to have compatible classes: only an occurrent have an occurrent as part; only a process can have a process as part; only a continuant can have a continuant as part; only an independent continuant can have an independent continuant as part; only a specifically dependent continuant can have a specifically dependent continuant as part; only a generically dependent continuant can have a generically dependent continuant as part. (This list is not exhaustive.) A continuant cannot have an occurrent as part: use 'participates in'. An occurrent cannot have a continuant as part: use 'has participant'. An immaterial entity cannot have a material entity as part: use 'location of'. An independent continuant cannot have a specifically dependent continuant as part: use 'bearer of'. A specifically dependent continuant cannot have an independent continuant as part: use 'inheres in'.
has_part
realized in
this disease is realized in this disease course
this fragility is realized in this shattering
this investigator role is realized in this investigation
is realized by
realized_in
[copied from inverse property 'realizes'] to say that b realizes c at t is to assert that there is some material entity d & b is a process which has participant d at t & c is a disposition or role of which d is bearer_of at t& the type instantiated by b is correlated with the type instantiated by c. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [059-003])
Paraphrase of elucidation: a relation between a realizable entity and a process, where there is some material entity that is bearer of the realizable entity and participates in the process, and the realizable entity comes to be realized in the course of the process
realizes
this disease course realizes this disease
this investigation realizes this investigator role
this shattering realizes this fragility
to say that b realizes c at t is to assert that there is some material entity d & b is a process which has participant d at t & c is a disposition or role of which d is bearer_of at t& the type instantiated by b is correlated with the type instantiated by c. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [059-003])
Paraphrase of elucidation: a relation between a process and a realizable entity, where there is some material entity that is bearer of the realizable entity and participates in the process, and the realizable entity comes to be realized in the course of the process
This document is about information artifacts and their representations
A (currently) primitive relation that relates an information artifact to an entity.
'is about' relates an information entity to other entities in which the information entity holds some information which dscribes some facet of the other entity, such as the arrow direction on a sign.
7/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg. Following discussion with Jonathan Rees, and introduction of "mentions" relation. Weaken the is_about relationship to be primitive. We will try to build it back up by elaborating the various subproperties that are more precisely defined. Some currently missing phenomena that should be considered "about" are predications - "The only person who knows the answer is sitting beside me" , Allegory, Satire, and other literary forms that can be topical without explicitly mentioning the topic.
person:Alan Ruttenberg
Smith, Ceusters, Ruttenberg, 2000 years of philosophy
Alan Ruttenberg
is about
A person's name denotes the person. A variable name in a computer program denotes some piece of memory. Lexically equivalent strings can denote different things, for instance "Alan" can denote different people. In each case of use, there is a case of the denotation relation obtaining, between "Alan" and the person that is being named.
A primitive, instance-level, relation obtaining between an information content entity and some portion of reality. Denotation is what happens when someone creates an information content entity E in order to specifically refer to something. The only relation between E and the thing is that E can be used to 'pick out' the thing. This relation connects those two together. Freedictionary.com sense 3: To signify directly; refer to specifically
2009-11-10 Alan Ruttenberg. Old definition said the following to emphasize the generic nature of this relation. We no longer have 'specifically denotes', which would have been primitive, so make this relation primitive. g denotes r =def r is a portion of reality there is some c that is a concretization of g every c that is a concretization of g specifically denotes r
Conversations with Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters, Bjoern Peters, Michel Dumontier, Melanie Courtot, James Malone, Bill Hogan
denotes
inverse of the relation 'denotes'
Person: Jie Zheng, Chris Stoeckert, Mike Conlon
denoted by
has_specified_output
The inverse property of is_specified_output_of
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
is_specified_output_of
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process. The presence of the continuant at the end of the process is explicitly specified in the objective specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
inheres in
this fragility is a characteristic of this vase
this red color is a characteristic of this apple
a relation between a specifically dependent continuant (the characteristic) and any other entity (the bearer), in which the characteristic depends on the bearer for its existence.
inheres_in
Note that this relation was previously called "inheres in", but was changed to be called "characteristic of" because BFO2 uses "inheres in" in a more restricted fashion. This relation differs from BFO2:inheres_in in two respects: (1) it does not impose a range constraint, and thus it allows qualities of processes, as well as of information entities, whereas BFO2 restricts inheres_in to only apply to independent continuants (2) it is declared functional, i.e. something can only be a characteristic of one thing.
characteristic of
bearer of
this apple is bearer of this red color
this vase is bearer of this fragility
Inverse of characteristic_of
A bearer can have many dependents, and its dependents can exist for different periods of time, but none of its dependents can exist when the bearer does not exist.
bearer_of
is bearer of
has characteristic
participates in
this blood clot participates in this blood coagulation
this input material (or this output material) participates in this process
this investigator participates in this investigation
a relation between a continuant and a process, in which the continuant is somehow involved in the process
participates_in
has participant
this blood coagulation has participant this blood clot
this investigation has participant this investigator
this process has participant this input material (or this output material)
a relation between a process and a continuant, in which the continuant is somehow involved in the process
Has_participant is a primitive instance-level relation between a process, a continuant, and a time at which the continuant participates in some way in the process. The relation obtains, for example, when this particular process of oxygen exchange across this particular alveolar membrane has_participant this particular sample of hemoglobin at this particular time.
has_participant
this catalysis function is a function of this enzyme
a relation between a function and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the function specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A function inheres in its bearer at all times for which the function exists, however the function need not be realized at all the times that the function exists.
function_of
is function of
This relation is modeled after the BFO relation of the same name which was in BFO2, but is used in a more restricted sense - specifically, we model this relation as functional (inherited from characteristic-of). Note that this relation is now removed from BFO2020.
function of
this red color is a quality of this apple
a relation between a quality and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the quality specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A quality inheres in its bearer at all times for which the quality exists.
is quality of
quality_of
quality of
this investigator role is a role of this person
a relation between a role and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the role specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A role inheres in its bearer at all times for which the role exists, however the role need not be realized at all the times that the role exists.
is role of
role_of
role of
this enzyme has function this catalysis function (more colloquially: this enzyme has this catalysis function)
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a function, in which the function specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many functions, and its functions can exist for different periods of time, but none of its functions can exist when the bearer does not exist. A function need not be realized at all the times that the function exists.
has_function
has function
this apple has quality this red color
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a quality, in which the quality specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many qualities, and its qualities can exist for different periods of time, but none of its qualities can exist when the bearer does not exist.
has_quality
has quality
this person has role this investigator role (more colloquially: this person has this role of investigator)
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a role, in which the role specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many roles, and its roles can exist for different periods of time, but none of its roles can exist when the bearer does not exist. A role need not be realized at all the times that the role exists.
has_role
has role
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a disposition, in which the disposition specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
has disposition
disposition of
is location of
my head is the location of my brain
this cage is the location of this rat
a relation between two independent continuants, the location and the target, in which the target is entirely within the location
Most location relations will only hold at certain times, but this is difficult to specify in OWL. See http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/docs/temporal-semantics/
location_of
location of
located in
my brain is located in my head
this rat is located in this cage
a relation between two independent continuants, the target and the location, in which the target is entirely within the location
Location as a relation between instances: The primitive instance-level relation c located_in r at t reflects the fact that each continuant is at any given time associated with exactly one spatial region, namely its exact location. Following we can use this relation to define a further instance-level location relation - not between a continuant and the region which it exactly occupies, but rather between one continuant and another. c is located in c1, in this sense, whenever the spatial region occupied by c is part_of the spatial region occupied by c1. Note that this relation comprehends both the relation of exact location between one continuant and another which obtains when r and r1 are identical (for example, when a portion of fluid exactly fills a cavity), as well as those sorts of inexact location relations which obtain, for example, between brain and head or between ovum and uterus
located_in
This is redundant with the more specific 'independent and not spatial region' constraint. We leave in the redundant axiom for use with reasoners that do not use negation.
Linking a type of software to its particular programming language.
Is encoded in is an "is about" relationship which describes the type of encoding used for the referenced class.
A property that associates a resource with its corresponding ObjectType.
This property helps in the classification and organization of resources by linking them to their specific object type, such as audio, image, video, etc.
The property is a relationship between a resource and the specified best practice.
has best practice
inverse of property "best practice"
best practice of
The property is a relationship between a resource and a contact point.
has contact point
inverse of property "contact point"
contact point of
The property related a resource to a person or an organization responsible for making contributions to a resource.
has contributor
inverse of property "contributor"
contributor of
The property relates a city or a state to a country where it is located.
of country
inverse of property "country"
country of
The property is a relation between a resource and a data set.
data set
inverse of property "data set"
data set of
The property relates a resource to the format available for the export of a resource.
has export format
inverse of property "export format"
export format of
The property relates a city to a federal state where it is located.
of federal state
inverse of property "federal state"
federal state of
The property relates a project to the organization that provided funding for it.
has funding organization
inverse of property "funding organization"
funding organization of
2024-04-09. Sasha Bruns: Following e.g. the Software Ontology (SWO), relations between two ICE are categorized under the overarching property "is about." Consequently, inverse properties become subproperties of a single superproperty (see e.g. swo:is_license_for and swo:has_license).
The property is a relationship between a resource and a license file.
has license
inverse of property "license"
license of
The property is a relationship between a thing and a place its located at.
has location
inverse of property "location"
The property relates a resource to its data format.
has media type
inverse of property "media type"
media type of
The property is a relationship between a consortium and an organization that is a member of the consortium.
member
The property is a relationship between an organization and a consortium it belongs to.
inverse of property "member"
member of
The property is a parental relationship between organizations.
has parent organization
The generic property is a relationship between a thing and its part.
The generic property is a relationship between a thing and a thing in which it is physically or logically included.
The property is a relationship between a project and an agent that participates in the project.
inverse of property "participant"
participant of
The property is a partner relationship between organizations. The property is symmetric.
has partner organization
The property links software to a programming language its written in.
has programming language
inverse of property "programming language"
programming language of
The property is a relationship between a resource and an organization or a person responsible for publishing it.
has publisher
inverse of property "publisher"
publisher of
The property is a relationship between a project or a resource and related projects.
has related project
The property is a relationship between a dataset and a collection it represents.
represented collection
inverse of property "represented collection"
represented collection of
The property relates a resource to its semantic expressivity spectrum.
has semantic expressivity
inverse of property "semantic expressivity"
semantic expressivity of
The property is a relationship between a resource and a software it uses.
has software
inverse of property "sofware"
software of
The property relates a data resource to its SPARQL Endpoint.
has sparql endpoint
inverse of property "sparql endpoint"
sparql endpoint of
The property is a relationship between a resource and the international standard or norm.
has specification
inverse of property "specification"
specification of
The property relates a resource to the standard it relies on.
has standard
inverse of property "standard"
standard of
The property establishes a connection between a resource, an agent, or a project, and the academic discipline, subject area, or domain within which they operate.
subject area
inverse of property "subject area"
subject area of
inverse of "parent organization"
has subsidiary organization
The property is a relationship between a resource and a technology it uses.
has technology
inverse of property "technology"
technology of
The property is a relationship between a thing and a url associated with the thing.
url
inverse of property "url"
url of
The range has been set to "Literal" because we expect "untidy" data, i.e. for most datums a structured value cannot be obtained through parsing.
The property refers to the date on which a person was born.
birth date
The property refers to the date on which a person passed away.
death date
The property refers to the date on which the organization ceased to exist or was formally dissolved.
dissolution date
The property relates an agent to their email address.
email address
The property refers to the moment in time when an event ends.
end date
An identifier for a file format (e.g. txt for a text file) used as a suffix to the file name, don't use dot at start.
The property refers to the specific date on which the organization was officially established or founded.
foundation date
The property refers to the moment in time when an event begins.
start date
A planned process that has specified output a software product and that involves the creation of source code.
Mathias Brochhausen
William R. Hogan
A planned process resulting in a software product involving the creation of source code.
software development
Julius Caesar
Verdi’s Requiem
the Second World War
your body mass index
BFO 2 Reference: In all areas of empirical inquiry we encounter general terms of two sorts. First are general terms which refer to universals or types:animaltuberculosissurgical procedurediseaseSecond, are general terms used to refer to groups of entities which instantiate a given universal but do not correspond to the extension of any subuniversal of that universal because there is nothing intrinsic to the entities in question by virtue of which they – and only they – are counted as belonging to the given group. Examples are: animal purchased by the Emperortuberculosis diagnosed on a Wednesdaysurgical procedure performed on a patient from Stockholmperson identified as candidate for clinical trial #2056-555person who is signatory of Form 656-PPVpainting by Leonardo da VinciSuch terms, which represent what are called ‘specializations’ in [81
Entity doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example Werner Ceusters 'portions of reality' include 4 sorts, entities (as BFO construes them), universals, configurations, and relations. It is an open question as to whether entities as construed in BFO will at some point also include these other portions of reality. See, for example, 'How to track absolutely everything' at http://www.referent-tracking.com/_RTU/papers/CeustersICbookRevised.pdf
An entity is anything that exists or has existed or will exist. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [001-001])
entity
An entity that exists in full at any time in which it exists at all, persists through time while maintaining its identity and has no temporal parts.
BFO 2 Reference: Continuant entities are entities which can be sliced to yield parts only along the spatial dimension, yielding for example the parts of your table which we call its legs, its top, its nails. ‘My desk stretches from the window to the door. It has spatial parts, and can be sliced (in space) in two. With respect to time, however, a thing is a continuant.’ [60, p. 240
Continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example, in an expansion involving bringing in some of Ceuster's other portions of reality, questions are raised as to whether universals are continuants
A continuant is an entity that persists, endures, or continues to exist through time while maintaining its identity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [008-002])
if b is a continuant and if, for some t, c has_continuant_part b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [126-001])
if b is a continuant and if, for some t, cis continuant_part of b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [009-002])
if b is a material entity, then there is some temporal interval (referred to below as a one-dimensional temporal region) during which b exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [011-002])
(forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (continuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [009-002]
(forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (hasContinuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [126-001]
(forall (x) (if (Continuant x) (Entity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [008-002]
(forall (x) (if (Material Entity x) (exists (t) (and (TemporalRegion t) (existsAt x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [011-002]
continuant
An entity that has temporal parts and that happens, unfolds or develops through time.
BFO 2 Reference: every occurrent that is not a temporal or spatiotemporal region is s-dependent on some independent continuant that is not a spatial region
BFO 2 Reference: s-dependence obtains between every process and its participants in the sense that, as a matter of necessity, this process could not have existed unless these or those participants existed also. A process may have a succession of participants at different phases of its unfolding. Thus there may be different players on the field at different times during the course of a football game; but the process which is the entire game s-depends_on all of these players nonetheless. Some temporal parts of this process will s-depend_on on only some of the players.
Occurrent doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the sum of a process and the process boundary of another process.
Simons uses different terminology for relations of occurrents to regions: Denote the spatio-temporal location of a given occurrent e by 'spn[e]' and call this region its span. We may say an occurrent is at its span, in any larger region, and covers any smaller region. Now suppose we have fixed a frame of reference so that we can speak not merely of spatio-temporal but also of spatial regions (places) and temporal regions (times). The spread of an occurrent, (relative to a frame of reference) is the space it exactly occupies, and its spell is likewise the time it exactly occupies. We write 'spr[e]' and `spl[e]' respectively for the spread and spell of e, omitting mention of the frame.
An occurrent is an entity that unfolds itself in time or it is the instantaneous boundary of such an entity (for example a beginning or an ending) or it is a temporal or spatiotemporal region which such an entity occupies_temporal_region or occupies_spatiotemporal_region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [077-002])
Every occurrent occupies_spatiotemporal_region some spatiotemporal region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [108-001])
b is an occurrent entity iff b is an entity that has temporal parts. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [079-001])
(forall (x) (if (Occurrent x) (exists (r) (and (SpatioTemporalRegion r) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion x r))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [108-001]
(forall (x) (iff (Occurrent x) (and (Entity x) (exists (y) (temporalPartOf y x))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [079-001]
occurrent
a chair
a heart
a leg
a molecule
a spatial region
an atom
an orchestra.
an organism
the bottom right portion of a human torso
the interior of your mouth
b is an independent continuant = Def. b is a continuant which is such that there is no c and no t such that b s-depends_on c at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [017-002])
For any independent continuant b and any time t there is some spatial region r such that b is located_in r at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [134-001])
For every independent continuant b and time t during the region of time spanned by its life, there are entities which s-depends_on b during t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [018-002])
(forall (x t) (if (IndependentContinuant x) (exists (r) (and (SpatialRegion r) (locatedInAt x r t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [134-001]
(forall (x t) (if (and (IndependentContinuant x) (existsAt x t)) (exists (y) (and (Entity y) (specificallyDependsOnAt y x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [018-002]
(iff (IndependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (not (exists (b t) (specificallyDependsOnAt a b t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [017-002]
independent continuant
BFO 2 Reference: Spatial regions do not participate in processes.
Spatial region doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the union of a spatial point and a spatial line that doesn't overlap the point, or two spatial lines that intersect at a single point. In both cases the resultant spatial region is neither 0-dimensional, 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensional.
A spatial region is a continuant entity that is a continuant_part_of spaceR as defined relative to some frame R. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [035-001])
All continuant parts of spatial regions are spatial regions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [036-001])
(forall (x y t) (if (and (SpatialRegion x) (continuantPartOfAt y x t)) (SpatialRegion y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [036-001]
(forall (x) (if (SpatialRegion x) (Continuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [035-001]
spatial region
a process of cell-division, \ a beating of the heart
a process of meiosis
a process of sleeping
the course of a disease
the flight of a bird
the life of an organism
your process of aging.
p is a process = Def. p is an occurrent that has temporal proper parts and for some time t, p s-depends_on some material entity at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [083-003])
BFO 2 Reference: The realm of occurrents is less pervasively marked by the presence of natural units than is the case in the realm of independent continuants. Thus there is here no counterpart of ‘object’. In BFO 1.0 ‘process’ served as such a counterpart. In BFO 2.0 ‘process’ is, rather, the occurrent counterpart of ‘material entity’. Those natural – as contrasted with engineered, which here means: deliberately executed – units which do exist in the realm of occurrents are typically either parasitic on the existence of natural units on the continuant side, or they are fiat in nature. Thus we can count lives; we can count football games; we can count chemical reactions performed in experiments or in chemical manufacturing. We cannot count the processes taking place, for instance, in an episode of insect mating behavior.Even where natural units are identifiable, for example cycles in a cyclical process such as the beating of a heart or an organism’s sleep/wake cycle, the processes in question form a sequence with no discontinuities (temporal gaps) of the sort that we find for instance where billiard balls or zebrafish or planets are separated by clear spatial gaps. Lives of organisms are process units, but they too unfold in a continuous series from other, prior processes such as fertilization, and they unfold in turn in continuous series of post-life processes such as post-mortem decay. Clear examples of boundaries of processes are almost always of the fiat sort (midnight, a time of death as declared in an operating theater or on a death certificate, the initiation of a state of war)
(iff (Process a) (and (Occurrent a) (exists (b) (properTemporalPartOf b a)) (exists (c t) (and (MaterialEntity c) (specificallyDependsOnAt a c t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [083-003]
process
an atom of element X has the disposition to decay to an atom of element Y
certain people have a predisposition to colon cancer
children are innately disposed to categorize objects in certain ways.
the cell wall is disposed to filter chemicals in endocytosis and exocytosis
BFO 2 Reference: Dispositions exist along a strength continuum. Weaker forms of disposition are realized in only a fraction of triggering cases. These forms occur in a significant number of cases of a similar type.
b is a disposition means: b is a realizable entity & b’s bearer is some material entity & b is such that if it ceases to exist, then its bearer is physically changed, & b’s realization occurs when and because this bearer is in some special physical circumstances, & this realization occurs in virtue of the bearer’s physical make-up. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [062-002])
If b is a realizable entity then for all t at which b exists, b s-depends_on some material entity at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [063-002])
(forall (x t) (if (and (RealizableEntity x) (existsAt x t)) (exists (y) (and (MaterialEntity y) (specificallyDepends x y t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [063-002]
(forall (x) (if (Disposition x) (and (RealizableEntity x) (exists (y) (and (MaterialEntity y) (bearerOfAt x y t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [062-002]
disposition
the disposition of this piece of metal to conduct electricity.
the disposition of your blood to coagulate
the function of your reproductive organs
the role of being a doctor
the role of this boundary to delineate where Utah and Colorado meet
A specifically dependent continuant that inheres in continuant entities and are not exhibited in full at every time in which it inheres in an entity or group of entities. The exhibition or actualization of a realizable entity is a particular manifestation, functioning or process that occurs under certain circumstances.
To say that b is a realizable entity is to say that b is a specifically dependent continuant that inheres in some independent continuant which is not a spatial region and is of a type instances of which are realized in processes of a correlated type. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [058-002])
All realizable dependent continuants have independent continuants that are not spatial regions as their bearers. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [060-002])
(forall (x t) (if (RealizableEntity x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (bearerOfAt y x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [060-002]
(forall (x) (if (RealizableEntity x) (and (SpecificallyDependentContinuant x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (inheresIn x y)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [058-002]
realizable entity
the ambient temperature of this portion of air
the color of a tomato
the length of the circumference of your waist
the mass of this piece of gold.
the shape of your nose
the shape of your nostril
a quality is a specifically dependent continuant that, in contrast to roles and dispositions, does not require any further process in order to be realized. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [055-001])
If an entity is a quality at any time that it exists, then it is a quality at every time that it exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [105-001])
(forall (x) (if (Quality x) (SpecificallyDependentContinuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [055-001]
(forall (x) (if (exists (t) (and (existsAt x t) (Quality x))) (forall (t_1) (if (existsAt x t_1) (Quality x))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [105-001]
quality
Reciprocal specifically dependent continuants: the function of this key to open this lock and the mutually dependent disposition of this lock: to be opened by this key
of one-sided specifically dependent continuants: the mass of this tomato
of relational dependent continuants (multiple bearers): John’s love for Mary, the ownership relation between John and this statue, the relation of authority between John and his subordinates.
the disposition of this fish to decay
the function of this heart: to pump blood
the mutual dependence of proton donors and acceptors in chemical reactions [79
the mutual dependence of the role predator and the role prey as played by two organisms in a given interaction
the pink color of a medium rare piece of grilled filet mignon at its center
the shape of this hole.
the smell of this portion of mozzarella
b is a specifically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant & there is some independent continuant c which is not a spatial region and which is such that b s-depends_on c at every time t during the course of b’s existence. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [050-003])
Specifically dependent continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. We're not sure what else will develop here, but for example there are questions such as what are promises, obligation, etc.
(iff (SpecificallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (forall (t) (if (existsAt a t) (exists (b) (and (IndependentContinuant b) (not (SpatialRegion b)) (specificallyDependsOnAt a b t))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [050-003]
specifically dependent continuant
John’s role of husband to Mary is dependent on Mary’s role of wife to John, and both are dependent on the object aggregate comprising John and Mary as member parts joined together through the relational quality of being married.
the priest role
the role of a boundary to demarcate two neighboring administrative territories
the role of a building in serving as a military target
the role of a stone in marking a property boundary
the role of subject in a clinical trial
the student role
A realizable entity the manifestation of which brings about some result or end that is not essential to a continuant in virtue of the kind of thing that it is but that can be served or participated in by that kind of continuant in some kinds of natural, social or institutional contexts.
BFO 2 Reference: One major family of examples of non-rigid universals involves roles, and ontologies developed for corresponding administrative purposes may consist entirely of representatives of entities of this sort. Thus ‘professor’, defined as follows,b instance_of professor at t =Def. there is some c, c instance_of professor role & c inheres_in b at t.denotes a non-rigid universal and so also do ‘nurse’, ‘student’, ‘colonel’, ‘taxpayer’, and so forth. (These terms are all, in the jargon of philosophy, phase sortals.) By using role terms in definitions, we can create a BFO conformant treatment of such entities drawing on the fact that, while an instance of professor may be simultaneously an instance of trade union member, no instance of the type professor role is also (at any time) an instance of the type trade union member role (any more than any instance of the type color is at any time an instance of the type length).If an ontology of employment positions should be defined in terms of roles following the above pattern, this enables the ontology to do justice to the fact that individuals instantiate the corresponding universals – professor, sergeant, nurse – only during certain phases in their lives.
b is a role means: b is a realizable entity & b exists because there is some single bearer that is in some special physical, social, or institutional set of circumstances in which this bearer does not have to be& b is not such that, if it ceases to exist, then the physical make-up of the bearer is thereby changed. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [061-001])
(forall (x) (if (Role x) (RealizableEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [061-001]
role
Manhattan Canyon)
a hole in the interior of a portion of cheese
a rabbit hole
an air traffic control region defined in the airspace above an airport
the Grand Canyon
the Piazza San Marco
the cockpit of an aircraft
the hold of a ship
the interior of a kangaroo pouch
the interior of the trunk of your car
the interior of your bedroom
the interior of your office
the interior of your refrigerator
the lumen of your gut
your left nostril (a fiat part – the opening – of your left nasal cavity)
b is a site means: b is a three-dimensional immaterial entity that is (partially or wholly) bounded by a material entity or it is a three-dimensional immaterial part thereof. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [034-002])
(forall (x) (if (Site x) (ImmaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [034-002]
site
The entries in your database are patterns instantiated as quality instances in your hard drive. The database itself is an aggregate of such patterns. When you create the database you create a particular instance of the generically dependent continuant type database. Each entry in the database is an instance of the generically dependent continuant type IAO: information content entity.
the pdf file on your laptop, the pdf file that is a copy thereof on my laptop
the sequence of this protein molecule; the sequence that is a copy thereof in that protein molecule.
b is a generically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant that g-depends_on one or more other entities. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [074-001])
(iff (GenericallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (exists (b t) (genericallyDependsOnAt a b t)))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [074-001]
generically dependent continuant
the function of a hammer to drive in nails
the function of a heart pacemaker to regulate the beating of a heart through electricity
the function of amylase in saliva to break down starch into sugar
BFO 2 Reference: In the past, we have distinguished two varieties of function, artifactual function and biological function. These are not asserted subtypes of BFO:function however, since the same function – for example: to pump, to transport – can exist both in artifacts and in biological entities. The asserted subtypes of function that would be needed in order to yield a separate monoheirarchy are not artifactual function, biological function, etc., but rather transporting function, pumping function, etc.
A function is a disposition that exists in virtue of the bearer’s physical make-up and this physical make-up is something the bearer possesses because it came into being, either through evolution (in the case of natural biological entities) or through intentional design (in the case of artifacts), in order to realize processes of a certain sort. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [064-001])
(forall (x) (if (Function x) (Disposition x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [064-001]
function
a flame
a forest fire
a human being
a hurricane
a photon
a puff of smoke
a sea wave
a tornado
an aggregate of human beings.
an energy wave
an epidemic
the undetached arm of a human being
An independent continuant that is spatially extended whose identity is independent of that of other entities and can be maintained through time.
BFO 2 Reference: Material entities (continuants) can preserve their identity even while gaining and losing material parts. Continuants are contrasted with occurrents, which unfold themselves in successive temporal parts or phases [60
BFO 2 Reference: Object, Fiat Object Part and Object Aggregate are not intended to be exhaustive of Material Entity. Users are invited to propose new subcategories of Material Entity.
BFO 2 Reference: ‘Matter’ is intended to encompass both mass and energy (we will address the ontological treatment of portions of energy in a later version of BFO). A portion of matter is anything that includes elementary particles among its proper or improper parts: quarks and leptons, including electrons, as the smallest particles thus far discovered; baryons (including protons and neutrons) at a higher level of granularity; atoms and molecules at still higher levels, forming the cells, organs, organisms and other material entities studied by biologists, the portions of rock studied by geologists, the fossils studied by paleontologists, and so on.Material entities are three-dimensional entities (entities extended in three spatial dimensions), as contrasted with the processes in which they participate, which are four-dimensional entities (entities extended also along the dimension of time).According to the FMA, material entities may have immaterial entities as parts – including the entities identified below as sites; for example the interior (or ‘lumen’) of your small intestine is a part of your body. BFO 2.0 embodies a decision to follow the FMA here.
A material entity is an independent continuant that has some portion of matter as proper or improper continuant part. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [019-002])
Every entity which has a material entity as continuant part is a material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [020-002])
every entity of which a material entity is continuant part is also a material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [021-002])
(forall (x) (if (MaterialEntity x) (IndependentContinuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [019-002]
(forall (x) (if (and (Entity x) (exists (y t) (and (MaterialEntity y) (continuantPartOfAt x y t)))) (MaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [021-002]
(forall (x) (if (and (Entity x) (exists (y t) (and (MaterialEntity y) (continuantPartOfAt y x t)))) (MaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [020-002]
material entity
BFO 2 Reference: Immaterial entities are divided into two subgroups:boundaries and sites, which bound, or are demarcated in relation, to material entities, and which can thus change location, shape and size and as their material hosts move or change shape or size (for example: your nasal passage; the hold of a ship; the boundary of Wales (which moves with the rotation of the Earth) [38, 7, 10
immaterial entity
objective specification
In the protocol of a ChIP assay the objective specification says to identify protein and DNA interaction.
A directive information entity that describes an intended process endpoint. When part of a plan specification the concretization is realized in a planned process in which the bearer tries to effect the world so that the process endpoint is achieved.
2009-03-16: original definition when imported from OBI read: "objective is an non realizable information entity which can serve as that proper part of a plan towards which the realization of the plan is directed."
2014-03-31: In the example of usage ("In the protocol of a ChIP assay the objective specification says to identify protein and DNA interaction") there is a protocol which is the ChIP assay protocol. In addition to being concretized on paper, the protocol can be concretized as a realizable entity, such as a plan that inheres in a person. The objective specification is the part that says that some protein and DNA interactions are identified. This is a specification of a process endpoint: the boundary in the process before which they are not identified and after which they are. During the realization of the plan, the goal is to get to the point of having the interactions, and participants in the realization of the plan try to do that.
Answers the question, why did you do this experiment?
PERSON: Barry Smith
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
goal specification
OBI Plan and Planned Process/Roles Branch
Pour the contents of flask 1 into flask 2
A directive information entity that describes an action the bearer will take.
OBI Plan and Planned Process branch
action specification
software
Software is a plan specification composed of a series of instructions that can be interpreted by or directly executed by a processing unit.
see sourceforge tracker discussion at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1958818&group_id=177891&atid=886178
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
GROUP: OBI
programming language
R, Perl, Java
A language in which source code is written that is intended to be executed/run by a software interpreter. Programming languages are ways to write instructions that specify what to do, and sometimes, how to do it.
person:Chris Stoeckert
data item
Data items include counts of things, analyte concentrations, and statistical summaries.
An information content entity that is intended to be a truthful statement about something (modulo, e.g., measurement precision or other systematic errors) and is constructed/acquired by a method which reliably tends to produce (approximately) truthful statements.
2/2/2009 Alan and Bjoern discussing FACS run output data. This is a data item because it is about the cell population. Each element records an event and is typically further composed a set of measurment data items that record the fluorescent intensity stimulated by one of the lasers.
2009-03-16: data item deliberatly ambiguous: we merged data set and datum to be one entity, not knowing how to define singular versus plural. So data item is more general than datum.
2009-03-16: removed datum as alternative term as datum specifically refers to singular form, and is thus not an exact synonym.
JAR: datum -- well, this will be very tricky to define, but maybe some information-like stuff that might be put into a computer and that is meant, by someone, to denote and/or to be interpreted by some process... I would include lists, tables, sentences... I think I might defer to Barry, or to Brian Cantwell Smith JAR: A data item is an approximately justified approximately true approximate belief
2014-03-31: See discussion at http://odontomachus.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/aboutness-objects-propositions/
PERSON: Jonathan Rees
data
information content entity
Examples of information content entites include journal articles, data, graphical layouts, and graphs.
A generically dependent continuant that is about some thing.
An information content entity is an entity that is generically dependent on some artifact and stands in relation of aboutness to some entity.
2014-03-10: The use of "thing" is intended to be general enough to include universals and configurations (see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/information-ontology/GBxvYZCk1oc/-L6B5fSBBTQJ).
information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some digital_entity in obi before split (040907). information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some physical_document in obi before split (040907). Previous. An information content entity is a non-realizable information entity that 'is encoded in' some digital or physical entity.
An information content entity whose concretizations indicate to their bearer how to realize them in a process.
2009-03-16: provenance: a term realizable information entity was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000337) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was "is the specification of a process that can be concretized and realized by an actor" with alternative term "instruction".It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term.
2013-05-30 Alan Ruttenberg: What differentiates a directive information entity from an information concretization is that it can have concretizations that are either qualities or realizable entities. The concretizations that are realizable entities are created when an individual chooses to take up the direction, i.e. has the intention to (try to) realize it.
8/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: Changed label from "information entity about a realizable" after discussions at ICBO
Werner pushed back on calling it realizable information entity as it isn't realizable. However this name isn't right either. An example would be a recipe. The realizable entity would be a plan, but the information entity isn't about the plan, it, once concretized, *is* the plan. -Alan
directive information entity
curation status specification
The curation status of the term. The allowed values come from an enumerated list of predefined terms. See the specification of these instances for more detailed definitions of each enumerated value.
Better to represent curation as a process with parts and then relate labels to that process (in IAO meeting)
PERSON:Bill Bug
source code module
The written source code that implements part of an algorithm. Test - if you know that it was written in a specific language, then it can be source code module. We mean here, roughly, the wording of a document such as a perl script.
A source code module is a directive information entity that specifies, using a programming language, some algorithm.
data about an ontology part
Data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
plan specification
PMID: 18323827.Nat Med. 2008 Mar;14(3):226.New plan proposed to help resolve conflicting medical advice.
A directive information entity with action specifications and objective specifications as parts, and that may be concretized as a realizable entity that, if realized, is realized in a process in which the bearer tries to achieve the objectives by taking the actions specified.
2009-03-16: provenance: a term a plan was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000344) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was " a plan is a specification of a process that is realized by an actor to achieve the objective specified as part of the plan". It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term.
2014-03-31: A plan specification can have other parts, such as conditional specifications.
2022-01-16 Updated definition to that proposed by Clint Dowloand, IAO Issue 231.
Alternative previous definition: a plan is a set of instructions that specify how an objective should be achieved
Clint Dowland
2/3/2009 Comment from OBI review. Action specification not well enough specified. Conditional specification not well enough specified. Question whether all plan specifications have objective specifications. Request that IAO either clarify these or change definitions not to use them
obsolescence reason specification
The reason for which a term has been deprecated. The allowed values come from an enumerated list of predefined terms. See the specification of these instances for more detailed definitions of each enumerated value.
The creation of this class has been inspired in part by Werner Ceusters' paper, Applying evolutionary terminology auditing to the Gene Ontology.
document
A journal article, patent application, laboratory notebook, or a book
A collection of information content entities intended to be understood together as a whole
PERSON: Lawrence Hunter
publication
journal article, newspaper story, book, etc.
A document that is the output of a publishing process.
PERSON: Jie Zheng
published document
Revisit the term in Octorber 2020. Improve the defintion.
denotator type
The Basic Formal Ontology ontology makes a distinction between Universals and defined classes, where the formal are "natural kinds" and the latter arbitrary collections of entities.
A denotator type indicates how a term should be interpreted from an ontological perspective.
Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters
A planned process of making information, such as literature, music, and software etc., available to the public for sale or for free.
Person: Jie Zheng
VEuPathDB
publishing process
planned process
A process that realizes a plan which is the concretization of a plan specification.
A licence is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of the resource containing the licence.
Modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_license
licence
An entity that represents the category or classification of a tangible or conceptual item.
A digital resource is of object type 'image'.
A quality of an entity that specifies the subject area, domain or academic discipline of an entity.
2024-03-26: SB & JW: Following the OMIT Ontology, the academy discilpine is defined as a subclass of bfo:quality (see e.g. http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OMIT_0001008)
An academic discipline, a research field or domain of an entity, e.g. a domain of a data portal or a field of study of a person.
academic discipline
Architecture, Art History, Musicology, Media Studies, Performing Arts
An independent continuant that acts autonomously and is entrusted with the authority to represent, negotiate, or act on behalf of another agent.
A class that represents entities that are capable of autonomous actions, decision-making, or interaction within a given environment, e.g. persons or organizations.
agent
Torsten Schrade, Linnaea Söhn, Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz
A place that refers to a densely populated urban area.
A city or a town where the thing is located.
city
Berlin, Hannover, Kyiv
A material entity that represents a collection of material entities intended to be understood together as a whole.
A tangible collection of valuables published or curated by an organization or a person.
collection
A collection of arts displayed at the museum
An organisation that consists of multiple independent groups and individuals, who join together to collaborate on a specific goal.
A consortium of autonomous organizations collaborating towards a shared goal, operating within the framework of an agreement.
consortium
An organization that has a specific role, responsibilities or contributions within the consortium framework.
A consortium member refers to an individual organization that has a specific role, responsibilities or contributions within the consortium framework.
consortium member
Museums of City Cologne is a member of NFDI4Culture consortium.
A role inhering in an organization that is realized when the organsation is a member of a consortium.
consortium member role
A role inhering in an agent that is realized when the agent is a contact point of a resource or a project.
contact point role
A planned process in which the contact information of an entity is provided.
contacting
A planned process of contibuting or providing information to an endeavor.
The contibution or provision of information to an endeavor.
contributing
A role inhering in an agent that is realized when the agent is a contact point of an entity.
contributor role
Semantic expressivity that refers to a standardized set of terms and descriptors used to index and retrieve information systematically.
A standardized set of terms and descriptors used to index and retrieve information systematically.
controlled vocabulary
the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN), the Cultural Objects Name Authority (CONA)
A place that refers to a defined geographical area distinguished by its territorial boundaries, governance structure, and sovereignty.
A country where the thing is located.
country
An information content entity that refers to a manifestation of someone's creative effort.
2024-03-22. Sasha Bruns - Unlike schema:CreativeWork, nfdicore:CreativeWork is specialized to cover digital creative works only. Through the mapping to "schema:CreativeWork and 'information content entity'", we exclude material creative works such as real paintings, architectural objects, and other physical artifacts, which fall outside the scope of nfdicore:CreativeWork.
A creative work refers to a digital intellectual or artistic resource, e.g. a dataset, metadata, a guideline, a software and other materials offering relevant information or instructions within their specific domains.
creative work
TRANSRAZ Data Model, NFDI4Culture Knowledge Graph, Guide for digital collection management at art museums, NFDI4Culture SPARQL Endpoint, Registry for Tools & Services, RADAR4Culture service, etc.
The activity of managing and promoting the use of data from their point of creation to ensure that they are fit for contemporary purpose and available for discovery and reuse. For dynamic datasets this may mean continuous enrichment or updating to keep them fit for purpose. Higher levels of curation will also involve links with annotation and with other published materials
data curation service
A website that serves as a centralized platform for accessing, managing, and sharing datasets, information, or resources related to a specific topic, theme, or domain.
An online platform that provides access to datasets.
data portal
Bach digital, KultSam, MusiXplora
Software that provides large amounts of structured data from repositories and archives to the user. Usually the data can be uploaded, accessed, searched and/or downloaded via a web browser.
databases service
A creative work that refers to a structured collection of data, organized typically for a specific goal such as analysis, research, or reference.
2024-04-10. Sasha Bruns: nfdicore:dataset and ioa:data set are not equivalent, due to their differing conceptualizations of what constitutes a iao:data item, which is a superclass of iao:data set. In the nfdicore ontology, a dataset may not necessarily align perfectly with the definition of a data item, since this definition implies a level of accuracy that may not always apply to datasets in their entirety. While a nfdicore:dataset may contain data items, it doesn't necessarily qualify as a data item itself under the strict definition provided by ioa:dataset. This differentiation helps us avoid ambiguity and ensures that our modeling aligns with the intended semantics.
Structured information about a resource provided by an organization or a person.
dataset
Fotothek Bibliotheca Hertziana Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte 320px static derivates research dataset (https://doi.org/10.17617/3.SVH2BT)
An occurent that represents an occurence or happening that unfolds in time.
A class that represents entities that occur or unfold in time, typically characterized by a specific happening or occurrence with temporal properties. Events encompass a wide range of occurrences, including but not limited to happenings, incidents, activities, or processes.
event
conferences, wars, strikes, celebrations, accidents, workshops, meetings, or any other specific incident or happening.
A place that refers to a geographical territory forming part of a country.
A federal state where the thing is located.
federal state
Sachsen, Berlin
A role inhering in an organization that is realized when the organization serves as a funder to endevaours, e.g. projects.
funding organization role
Semantic expressivity that refers to a list of terms and their definitions within a specific domain or academic discipline.
A compilation of terms and their definitions within a specific domain or academic discipline.
glossary
ICOM Museum Glossary
Collection of pre-implemented functions for a specific task that can be accessed via a well-defined interface.
libraries & APIs service
An information content entity that refers to a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of the resource containing the licence.
A document that provides legal guidelines for the use of a resource, e.g. a software.
license
cc-by-3, Digital Peer Publishing Lizenz
A media type that serves as a standardized identifier for specifying the nature and format of data.
The MIME-type template of the resource (see https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml)
MIME-type
https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/dicom, https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/video/mp4, https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/text/n3
A directive information entity that describes a media type a bearer has.
A digital resource format or physical medium.
media type
doc, avi, mpeg, epub, txt, MIME-type, record, cassette, VHS, LaserDiscs, CD, DVD, Blu-ray color lithograph, text book
Semantic expressivity that refers to a semantic framework that represents knowledge about a domain, including concepts, entities, properties, and relationships, in a structured and machine-understandable manner.
A semantic framework that represents knowledge about a domain, including concepts, entities, properties, and relationships, in a structured and formalized manner, enabling machine-understandable reasoning and inference.
ontology
An agent that refers to a group of individuals, which structures and coordinates the activities of individuals or groups toward achieving common goal within a defined framework.
An organization of some kind, e.g. research organization or business organization
organization
University Library in Leipzig, Museums of City Cologne
An agent that represents a single human individual.
2024-03-24. Sasha Bruns - the class is not mapped to NCBITaxon_9606 (homo sapiens) due to different scope of the ontologies. "Person" in nfdicore represents entities with specific roles, responsibilities, and attributes within an organization, and is not limited to its biological characteristics.
A resource that represents a single person.
person
Harald Sack, Tabea Tietz, Sasha Bruns, Etienne Posthumus
A site that refers to geographical locations, such as cities, countries, landmarks, and natural environments.
A spatial region, e.g. country, city or district.
place
A technological means that is used for implementing software.
A formal language used for implementing a software.
A planned process of a scientific or business endeavor that aims to conclude an investigation or to answer a research question.
A scientific or business endeavor that aims to conclude an investigation or to answer a research question.
project
Freischütz digital, Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi
A creative work that is the output of a publishing process.
A published scholarly work that reports on ongoing activity about or within a resource, e.g. a dataset.
MusiXplora: Visual analysis of a musicological encyclopedia, Textkategorien in kompositorischen Werkstattdokumenten
A role inhering in an agent that is realized when the bearer participates in the publishing of the document.
publisher role
An information content entity that refers to digital creative works and services, and is utilized to organize the resources of NFDI.
2024-03-25 - Sasha Bruns: This class is useful in nfdicore to provide a unified and structured representation of the diverse range of resources that contribute to the NFDI infrastructure. IMO, it helps to emphasize the scope of resources that can be contributed to the NFDI compared to all information content entites in IAO.
The most generic kind of a resource and may be associated with any kind of digital creative work, e.g. datasets, collections, metadata; offered products and services, e.g. data portals, data curation, data digitization.
resource
A quality of a resource that defines the degree of expressivity in the semantic representation of a resource.
The class represents the degree of expressivity in the semantic representation of a resource, such as an ontology, taxonomy, or glossary. It specifies the extent to which the resource captures and conveys the meaning, relationships, and semantics of concepts within a knowledge domain.
semantic expressivity
controlled vocabulary, ontology, taxonomy
An information content entity that refers to offerings provided by individuals or organizations to facilitate and contribute to the specific goals.
Services are resources offered by organizations or people to support and contribute to the predefined goals of a project. Services may encompass a diverse range of contributions such as data curation, specialized expertise, skill and various other forms of support.
service
Data curation for HeiDATA, Expertise for the development and application of LIDO
A creative work that comprises a set of instructions, programs, or algorithms designed to perform specific tasks or functions on a computer or other electronic devices.
A computer software provided by an organization or a person.
A creative work that defines the requirements, characteristics, or standards for the design, implementation, or operation of a system, product, or process.
2024-03-24. Sasha Bruns: specifications have dual nature - they are both directive information entities guiding actions (plan specification) and digital intellectual resources providing relevant information and guidelines (creative work).
A set of requirements, guidelines, standards contributed by an organization or a person.
specification
Guidelines, technical specifications, design specifications
A specification that establishes a set of guidelines, criteria, or norms recognized and adopted by internationational community.
An international standard and norm that can be used to evaluate or create a resource.
standard
Provision of storage space for research data as a service to external users. Access is possible via web protocols.
storage service
Service with direct user contact for topics going beyond the support for specific single services.
support & consulting service
Semantic expressivity that refers to a hierarchical classification system that organizes concepts into a tree-like structure.
A hierarchical classification system that organizes concepts into a tree-like structure based on their shared characteristics and relationships.
taxonomy
Linnaean Taxonomy, Iconclass
A plan specification that refers to technology employed for the creation, management, utilization, or control of a resource.
A technology, e.g. a web application or a programming framework used in a resource.
technological means
Groovy on Grails, Angular
A controlled vocabulary organized hierarchically and provided with associative relationships, such as synonyms, broader terms, and narrower terms.
A hierarchical controlled vocabulary enriched with associative relationships, including synonyms, broader terms, and narrower terms.
thesaurus
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, UNESCO Thesaurus for cultural and scientific documentation
Software that can be downloaded and executed locally on the users' hardware.
tools & applications service
Standalone training for self-study can be considered a technical service (usually a web application). Generally speaking, training materials often come in the form of specific measures or tutorials that are attached to a service and that are designed to improve the user’s service experience. Our joint understanding of training as a stand-alone service, however, is not limited to the above and includes materials designed for education in all fields of research data management.
training service
Software that is installed on a server and can be used by users via a web page and the internet, for example Software-as-a-service (SaaS).
web applications service
A creative work that represents a collection of interconnected web pages, multimedia content, and digital resources accessible via the World Wide Web.
A collection of webpages contributed by an organization or a person.
website
Software that combines multiple tools/applications. They may be used locally or remotely via the internet.
workflows & pipelines service
The most generic kind of creative work, including books, movies, photographs, software programs, etc.
CreativeWork
A service provided by an organization, e.g. delivery service, print services, etc.
Service
example to be eventually removed
failed exploratory term
The term was used in an attempt to structure part of the ontology but in retrospect failed to do a good job
metadata complete
Class has all its metadata, but is either not guaranteed to be in its final location in the asserted IS_A hierarchy or refers to another class that is not complete.
organizational term
Term created to ease viewing/sort terms for development purpose, and will not be included in a release
ready for release
Class has undergone final review, is ready for use, and will be included in the next release. Any class lacking "ready_for_release" should be considered likely to change place in hierarchy, have its definition refined, or be obsoleted in the next release. Those classes deemed "ready_for_release" will also derived from a chain of ancestor classes that are also "ready_for_release."
metadata incomplete
Class is being worked on; however, the metadata (including definition) are not complete or sufficiently clear to the branch editors.
uncurated
Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term.
pending final vetting
All definitions, placement in the asserted IS_A hierarchy and required minimal metadata are complete. The class is awaiting a final review by someone other than the term editor.
placeholder removed
terms merged
An editor note should explain what were the merged terms and the reason for the merge.
term imported
This is to be used when the original term has been replaced by a term imported from an other ontology. An editor note should indicate what is the URI of the new term to use.
term split
This is to be used when a term has been split in two or more new terms. An editor note should indicate the reason for the split and indicate the URIs of the new terms created.
universal
Hard to give a definition for. Intuitively a "natural kind" rather than a collection of any old things, which a class is able to be, formally. At the meta level, universals are defined as positives, are disjoint with their siblings, have single asserted parents.
A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf
defined class
A defined class is a class that is defined by a set of logically necessary and sufficient conditions but is not a universal
"definitions", in some readings, always are given by necessary and sufficient conditions. So one must be careful (and this is difficult sometimes) to distinguish between defined classes and universal.
named class expression
A named class expression is a logical expression that is given a name. The name can be used in place of the expression.
named class expressions are used in order to have more concise logical definition but their extensions may not be interesting classes on their own. In languages such as OWL, with no provisions for macros, these show up as actuall classes. Tools may with to not show them as such, and to replace uses of the macros with their expansions
to be replaced with external ontology term
Terms with this status should eventually replaced with a term from another ontology.
requires discussion
A term that is metadata complete, has been reviewed, and problems have been identified that require discussion before release. Such a term requires editor note(s) to identify the outstanding issues.
The term was added to the ontology on the assumption it was in scope, but it turned out later that it was not.
This obsolesence reason should be used conservatively. Typical valid examples are: un-necessary grouping classes in disease ontologies, a phenotype term added on the assumption it was a disease.