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ROMULUS: The Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes Populated with Mediated Foundational Ontologies

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Journal on Data Semantics

Abstract

A foundational ontology contributes to ontology-driven conceptual data modelling and is used to solve interoperability issues among domain ontologies. Multiple foundational ontologies have been developed in recent years, and most of them are available in several versions. This has re-introduced the interoperability problem, increased the need for a coordinated and structured comparison and elucidation of modelling decisions, and raised the requirement for software infrastructure to address this. We present here a basic step in that direction with the Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes, ROMULUS, which is the first online library of machine-processable, modularised, aligned, and logic-based merged foundational ontologies. In addition to the typical features of a model repository, it has a foundational ontology recommender covering features of six foundational ontologies, tailor-made modules for easier reuse, and a catalogue of mappable and non-mappable elements among the BFO, GFO and DOLCE foundational ontologies.

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Notes

  1. There is a page for each of the criteria—ontological commitments, representation languages, software engineering properties, subject domains and applications—within the comparison area of the web interface.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Zubeida Casmod Khan & C. Maria Keet

  2. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa

    Zubeida Casmod Khan

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  1. Zubeida Casmod Khan
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  2. C. Maria Keet
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Correspondence to C. Maria Keet.

Additional information

This work is based upon research supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Project UID: 90041) and the Argentinean Ministry of Science and Technology.

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Khan, Z.C., Keet, C.M. ROMULUS: The Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes Populated with Mediated Foundational Ontologies. J Data Semant 5, 19–36 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13740-015-0052-1

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