Adam Goldstein
Alan Ruttenberg
Albert Goldfain
Barry Smith
Bjoern Peters
Carlo Torniai
Chris Mungall
Chris Stoeckert
Christian A. Boelling
Darren Natale
David Osumi-Sutherland
Gwen Frishkoff
Holger Stenzhorn
James A. Overton
James Malone
Jennifer Fostel
Jie Zheng
Jonathan Rees
Larisa Soldatova
Lawrence Hunter
Mathias Brochhausen
Matt Brush
Melanie Courtot
Michel Dumontier
Paolo Ciccarese
Pat Hayes
Philippe Rocca-Serra
Randy Dipert
Ron Rudnicki
Satya Sahoo
Sivaram Arabandi
Werner Ceusters
William Duncan
William Hogan
Yongqun (Oliver) He
An ontology specifies terms that are used to annotate ontology terms for all OBO ontologies. The ontology was developed as part of Information Artifact Ontology (IAO).
OBO Metadata Ontology
editor preferred term
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.
in branch
An annotation property indicating which module the terms belong to. This is currently experimental and not implemented yet.
has curation status
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON:Bill Bug
PERSON:Melanie Courtot
definition
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.
alternative label
A label for a class or property that can be used to refer to the class or property instead of the preferred rdfs:label. Alternative labels should be used to indicate community- or context-specific labels, abbreviations, shorthand forms and the like.
Consider re-defing to: An alternative name for a class or property which can mean the same thing as the preferred name (semantically equivalent, narrow, broad or related).
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
has obsolescence reason
Relates an annotation property to an obsolescence reason. The values of obsolescence reasons come from a list of predefined terms, instances of the class obsolescence reason specification.
curator note
An administrative note of use for a curator but of no use for a user
term tracker item
the URI for an OBI Terms ticket at sourceforge, such as https://sourceforge.net/p/obi/obi-terms/772/
An IRI or similar locator for a request or discussion of an ontology term.
Person: Jie Zheng, Chris Stoeckert, Alan Ruttenberg
The 'tracker item' can associate a tracker with a specific ontology term.
ontology term requester
The name of the person, project, or organization that motivated inclusion of an ontology term by requesting its addition.
The 'term requester' can credit the person, organization or project who request the ontology term.
is denotator type
Relates an class defined in an ontology, to the type of it's denotator
In OWL 2 add AnnotationPropertyRange('is denotator type' 'denotator type')
imported from
For external terms/classes, the ontology from which the term was imported
expand expression to
ObjectProperty: RO_0002104 Label: has plasma membrane part Annotations: IAO_0000424 "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some (http://purl.org/obo/owl/GO#GO_0005886 and http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?Y)"
A macro expansion tag applied to an object property (or possibly a data property) which can be used by a macro-expansion engine to generate more complex expressions from simpler ones
expand assertion to
ObjectProperty: RO??? Label: spatially disjoint from Annotations: expand_assertion_to "DisjointClasses: (http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?X) (http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?Y)"
A macro expansion tag applied to an annotation property which can be expanded into a more detailed axiom.
first order logic expression
antisymmetric property
part_of antisymmetric property xsd:true
Use boolean value xsd:true to indicate that the property is an antisymmetric property
OBO foundry unique label
An alternative name for a class or property which is unique across the OBO Foundry.
The intended usage of that property is as follow: OBO foundry unique labels are automatically generated based on regular expressions provided by each ontology, so that SO could specify unique label = 'sequence ' + [label], etc. , MA could specify 'mouse + [label]' etc. Upon importing terms, ontology developers can choose to use the 'OBO foundry unique label' for an imported term or not. The same applies to tools .
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
PERSON:Chris Mungall
GROUP:OBO Foundry <http://obofoundry.org/>
has ID digit count
Ontology: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/idrange/> Annotations: 'has ID prefix': "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/RO_" 'has ID digit count' : 7, rdfs:label "RO id policy" 'has ID policy for': "RO"
Relates an ontology used to record id policy to the number of digits in the URI. The URI is: the 'has ID prefix" annotation property value concatenated with an integer in the id range (left padded with "0"s to make this many digits)
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
has ID range allocated
Datatype: idrange:1 Annotations: 'has ID range allocated to': "Chris Mungall" EquivalentTo: xsd:integer[> 2151 , <= 2300]
Relates a datatype that encodes a range of integers to the name of the person or organization who can use those ids constructed in that range to define new terms
has ID range allocated to
has ID policy for
Relating an ontology used to record id policy to the ontology namespace whose policy it manages
has ID prefix
Relates an ontology used to record id policy to a prefix concatenated with an integer in the id range (left padded with "0"s to make this many digits) to construct an ID for a term being created.
elucidation
person:Alan Ruttenberg
Person:Barry Smith
Primitive terms in a highest-level ontology such as BFO are terms which are so basic to our understanding of reality that there is no way of defining them in a non-circular fashion. For these, therefore, we can provide only elucidations, supplemented by examples and by axioms
has associated axiom(nl)
An axiom associated with a term expressed using natural language
has associated axiom(fol)
An axiom expressed in first order logic using CLIF syntax
is allocated id range
Relates an ontology IRI to an (inclusive) range of IRIs in an OBO name space. The range is give as, e.g. "IAO_0020000-IAO_0020999"
Add as annotation triples in the granting ontology
has ontology root term
Ontology annotation property. Relates an ontology to a term that is a designated root term of the ontology. Display tools like OLS can use terms annotated with this property as the starting point for rendering the ontology class hierarchy. There can be more than one root.
Nicolas Matentzoglu
may be identical to
A annotation relationship between two terms in an ontology that may refer to the same (natural) type but where more evidence is required before terms are merged.
VFB
Edges asserting this should be annotated with to record evidence supporting the assertion and its provenance.
scheduled for obsoletion on or after
Used when the class or object is scheduled for obsoletion/deprecation on or after a particular date.
Chris Mungall, Jie Zheng
GO ontology
has axiom id
A URI that is intended to be unique label for an axiom used for tracking change to the ontology. For an axiom expressed in different languages, each expression is given the same URI
has axiom label
term replaced by
Use on obsolete terms, relating the term to another term that can be used as a substitute
This is an annotation used on an object property to indicate a logical characterstic beyond what is possible in OWL.
logical characteristic of object property
'part disjoint with' 'defined by construct' """ PREFIX owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> PREFIX : <http://example.org/ CONSTRUCT { [ a owl:Restriction ; owl:onProperty :part_of ; owl:someValuesFrom ?a ; owl:disjointWith [ a owl:Restriction ; owl:onProperty :part_of ; owl:someValuesFrom ?b ] ] } WHERE { ?a :part_disjoint_with ?b . }
Links an annotation property to a SPARQL CONSTRUCT query which is meant to provide semantics for a shortcut relation.
CHEBI:26523 (reactive oxygen species) has an exact synonym (ROS), which is of type OMO:0003000 (abbreviation)
A synonym type for describing abbreviations or initalisms
A synonym type for describing ambiguous synonyms
A synonym type for describing dubious synonyms
EFO:0006346 (severe cutaneous adverse reaction) has an exact synonym (scar), which is of the type OMO:0003003 (layperson synonym)
A synonym type for describing layperson or colloquial synonyms
CHEBI:23367 (molecular entity) has an exact synonym (molecular entities), which is of the type OMO:0003004 (plural form)
A synonym type for describing pluralization synonyms
CHEBI:16189 (sulfate) has an exact synonym (sulphate), which is of the type OMO:0003005 (UK spelling synonym)
A synonym type for describing UK spelling variants
A synonym type for misnomers, i.e., a synonym that is not technically correct but is commonly used anyway
MAPT, the gene that encodes the Tau protein, has a previous name DDPAC. Note: in this case, the name type is more specifically the gene symbol.
A synonym type for names that have been used as primary labels in the past.
The legal name for Harvard University (https://ror.org/03vek6s52) is President and Fellows of Harvard College
A synonym type for the legal entity name
CHEBI:46195 has been assigned the english International Nonproproprietary Name (INN) "paracetamol". In some cases such as this one, the INN might be the same as the ontology's primary label
The International Nonproprietary Name (INN) is a standardize name for a pharmaceutical drug or active ingredient issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) meant to address the issues with country- or language-specific brand names. These are issued in several languages, including English, Latin, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese.
nasopharynx (UBERON:0001728) has the latin name "pars nasalis pharyngis
A synonym type for describing Latin term synonyms.
NASA is an word acronym for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration because the acronym is pronounced. FBI is an initialism (also known as alphabetism) for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation since the letters are pronounced one at a time. JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group but does not count as a word acronym nor an initialism since it is mixed how it is pronounced.
A synonym type for describing abbreviations that are a part of the full name's words, such as initialisms or alphabetisms.
An alternative label for a class or property which has a more general meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has broad synonym
An alternative label for a class or property which has the exact same meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has exact synonym
An alternative label for a class or property which has a more specific meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has narrow synonym
An alternative label for a class or property that has been used synonymously with the primary term name, but the usage is not strictly correct.
has related synonym
data item
information content 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)
data about an ontology part
Data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
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.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
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
ontology module
I have placed this under 'data about an ontology part', but this can be discussed. I think this is OK if 'part' is interpreted reflexively, as an ontology module is the whole ontology rather than part of it.
ontology file
This class and it's subclasses are applied to OWL ontologies. Using an rdf:type triple will result in problems with OWL-DL. I propose that dcterms:type is instead used to connect an ontology URI with a class from this hierarchy. The class hierarchy is not disjoint, so multiple assertions can be made about a single ontology.
base ontology module
An ontology module that comprises only of asserted axioms local to the ontology, excludes import directives, and excludes axioms or declarations from external ontologies.
editors ontology module
An ontology module that is intended to be directly edited, typically managed in source control, and typically not intended for direct consumption by end-users.
source ontology module
main release ontology module
An ontology module that is intended to be the primary release product and the one consumed by the majority of tools.
TODO: Add logical axioms that state that a main release ontology module is derived from (directly or indirectly) an editors module
bridge ontology module
An ontology module that consists entirely of axioms that connect or bridge two distinct ontology modules. For example, the Uberon-to-ZFA bridge module.
import ontology module
A subset ontology module that is intended to be imported from another ontology.
TODO: add axioms that indicate this is the output of a module extraction process.
import file
subset ontology module
An ontology module that is extracted from a main ontology module and includes only a subset of entities or axioms.
ontology slim
subset ontology
curation subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is intended as a whitelist for curators using the ontology. Such a subset will exclude classes that curators should not use for curation.
analysis ontology module
An ontology module that is intended for usage in analysis or discovery applications.
analysis subset ontology module
single layer ontology module
A subset ontology that is largely comprised of a single layer or strata in an ontology class hierarchy. The purpose is typically for rolling up for visualization. The classes in the layer need not be disjoint.
ribbon subset
single layer subset ontology module
exclusion subset ontology module
A subset of an ontology that is intended to be excluded for some purpose. For example, a blacklist of classes.
antislim
external import ontology module
An imported ontology module that is derived from an external ontology. Derivation methods include the OWLAPI SLME approach.
external import
species subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is crafted to either include or exclude a taxonomic grouping of species.
taxon subset
reasoned ontology module
An ontology module that contains axioms generated by a reasoner. The generated axioms are typically direct SubClassOf axioms, but other possibilities are available.
generated ontology module
An ontology module that is automatically generated, for example via a SPARQL query or via template and a CSV.
TODO: Add axioms (using PROV-O?) that indicate this is the output-of some reasoning process
template generated ontology module
An ontology module that is automatically generated from a template specification and fillers for slots in that template.
taxonomic bridge ontology module
ontology module subsetted by expressivity
obo basic subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is designed for basic applications to continue to make certain simplifying assumptions; many of these simplifying assumptions were based on the initial version of the Gene Ontology, and have become enshrined in many popular and useful tools such as term enrichment tools. Examples of such assumptions include: traversing the ontology graph ignoring relationship types using a naive algorithm will not lead to cycles (i.e. the ontology is a DAG); every referenced term is declared in the ontology (i.e. there are no dangling clauses). An ontology is OBO Basic if and only if it has the following characteristics: DAG Unidirectional No Dangling Clauses Fully Asserted Fully Labeled No equivalence axioms Singly labeled edges No qualifier lists No disjointness axioms No owl-axioms header No imports
ontology module subsetted by OWL profile
EL++ ontology module
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.
Core is an instance of a grouping of terms from an ontology or ontologies. It is used by the ontology to identify main classes.
obsolete_core
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.
The term was added to the ontology on the assumption it was a valid domain entity, but it turns out the entity does not exist in reality.
This obsolesence reason should be used conservatively. For example: Obsoleting class that describes a breed of cow based on a record in an existing database, that was later retracted as faulty (breed does not exist). Do not use this term to obsolete a historic concept (that was once valid, but not anymore).