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Metamodel

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

Synonyms

Meta model

Definition

A metamodel is a model that consists of statements about models. Hence, a metamodel is also a model but its universe of discourse is a set of models, namely those models that are of interest to the creator of the metamodel. In the context of information systems, a metamodel contains statements about the constructs used in models about information systems. The statements in a metamodel can define the constructs or can express true and desired properties of the constructs. Like models are abstractions of some reality, metamodels are abstractions of models. The continuation of the abstraction leads to meta metamodels, being models of metamodels containing statements about metamodels. Metamodeling is the activity of designing metamodels (and metametamodels). Metamodeling is applied to design new modeling languages and to extend existing modeling languages.

A second sense of the term metamodel is the specification of the generation of mathematical models, in...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Manfred A. Jeusfeld

Authors
  1. Manfred A. Jeusfeld
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Jeusfeld, M.A. (2009). Metamodel. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_898

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