SKOS Core Vocabulary
type: Ontology
creator: Sean Bechhofer
creator: Alistair Miles
description: An RDF vocabulary for describing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, 'folksonomies', other types of controlled vocabulary, and also concept schemes embedded in glossaries and terminologies.
contributor: Participants in W3C's Semantic Web Deployment Working Group.
contributor: Dave Beckett
contributor: Nikki Rogers

alternative label
type: AnnotationProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: Acronyms, abbreviations, spelling variants, and irregular plural/singular forms may be included among the alternative labels for a concept. Mis-spelled terms are normally included as hidden labels (see skos:hiddenLabel).
definition: An alternative lexical label for a resource.
comment: The range of skos:altLabel is the class of RDF plain literals.
comment: skos:prefLabel, skos:altLabel and skos:hiddenLabel are pairwise disjoint properties.
sub property of: label
type: DatatypeProperty
type: NamedIndividual

definition
type: AnnotationProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A statement or formal explanation of the meaning of a concept.
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

hidden label
type: AnnotationProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A lexical label for a resource that should be hidden when generating visual displays of the resource, but should still be accessible to free text search operations.
comment: The range of skos:hiddenLabel is the class of RDF plain literals.
comment: skos:prefLabel, skos:altLabel and skos:hiddenLabel are pairwise disjoint properties.
sub property of: label
type: DatatypeProperty
type: NamedIndividual

preferred label
type: AnnotationProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: No two concepts in the same concept scheme may have the same value for skos:prefLabel in a given language.
definition: The preferred lexical label for a resource, in a given language.
comment: The range of skos:prefLabel is the class of RDF plain literals.
comment: skos:prefLabel, skos:altLabel and skos:hiddenLabel are pairwise disjoint properties.
sub property of: label
type: DatatypeProperty
type: NamedIndividual

broader match
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: skos:broadMatch is used to state a hierarchical mapping link between two conceptual resources in different concept schemes.
sub property of: has broader
sub property of: mapping relation
type: NamedIndividual

has broader
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A concept that is more general in meaning.
comment: Broader concepts are typically rendered as parents in a concept hierarchy (tree).
comment: By convention, skos:broader is only used to assert an immediate (i.e. direct) hierarchical link between two conceptual resources.
sub property of: broader transitive
inverse of: has narrower
type: NamedIndividual

broader transitive
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: By convention, skos:broaderTransitive is not used to make assertions. Rather, the properties can be used to draw inferences about the transitive closure of the hierarchical relation, which is useful e.g. when implementing a simple query expansion algorithm in a search application.
definition: skos:broaderTransitive is a transitive superproperty of skos:broader.
inverse of: narrower transitive
sub property of: semantic relation
type: NamedIndividual

change note
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A note about a modification to a concept.
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

exact match
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: skos:closeMatch is used to link two concepts that are sufficiently similar that they can be used interchangeably in some information retrieval applications. In order to avoid the possibility of "compound errors" when combining mappings across more than two concept schemes, skos:closeMatch is not declared to be a transitive property.
sub property of: mapping relation
type: NamedIndividual

editorial note
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A note for an editor, translator or maintainer of the vocabulary.
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

exact match
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: skos:exactMatch is disjoint with each of the properties skos:broadMatch and skos:relatedMatch.
definition: skos:exactMatch is used to link two concepts, indicating a high degree of confidence that the concepts can be used interchangeably across a wide range of information retrieval applications. skos:exactMatch is a transitive property, and is a sub-property of skos:closeMatch.
sub property of: exact match
type: NamedIndividual

example
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: An example of the use of a concept.
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

has top concept
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A top level concept in the concept scheme.
range: Concept
domain: Concept Scheme
type: NamedIndividual

history note
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A note about the past state/use/meaning of a concept.
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

in scheme
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: A concept may be a member of more than one concept scheme.
definition: A concept scheme in which the concept is included.
range: Concept Scheme
type: NamedIndividual

mapping relation
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: Definition
comment: These concept mapping relations mirror semantic relations, and the data model defined below is similar (with the exception of skos:exactMatch) to the data model defined for semantic relations. A distinct vocabulary is provided for concept mapping relations, to provide a convenient way to differentiate links within a concept scheme from links between concept schemes. However, this pattern of usage is not a formal requirement of the SKOS data model, and relies on informal definitions of best practice.
domain: Concept
range: Concept
type: NamedIndividual

member
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A member of a collection.
domain: Collection
type: NamedIndividual

member list
type: ObjectProperty
type: FunctionalProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: An RDF list containing the members of an ordered collection.
comment: For any resource, every item in the list given as the value of the skos:memberList property is also a value of the skos:member property.
range: List
domain: Ordered Collection
type: NamedIndividual

narrower match
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: skos:narrowMatch is used to state a hierarchical mapping link between two conceptual resources in different concept schemes.
inverse of: broader match
sub property of: mapping relation
sub property of: has narrower
type: NamedIndividual

has narrower
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A concept that is more specific in meaning.
comment: By convention, skos:broader is only used to assert an immediate (i.e. direct) hierarchical link between two conceptual resources.
comment: Narrower concepts are typically rendered as children in a concept hierarchy (tree).
sub property of: narrower transitive
type: NamedIndividual

narrower transitive
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: skos:narrowerTransitive is a transitive superproperty of skos:broader. By convention, skos:narrowerTransitive is not intended to be used in assertions, but provides a mechanism whereby the transitive closure of skos:narrower can be queried.
comment: By convention, skos:narrowerTransitive is not used to make assertions. Rather, the properties can be used to draw inferences about the transitive closure of the hierarchical relation, which is useful e.g. when implementing a simple query expansion algorithm in a search application.
sub property of: semantic relation
type: NamedIndividual

note
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A general note, for any purpose.
comment: This property may be used directly, or as a super-property for more specific note types.
type: NamedIndividual

related to
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A concept with which there is an associative semantic relationship.
comment: skos:related is disjoint with skos:broaderTransitive
sub property of: semantic relation
type: NamedIndividual

related match
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: skos:relatedMatch is used to state an associative mapping link between two conceptual resources in different concept schemes.
sub property of: mapping relation
sub property of: related to
type: NamedIndividual

scope note
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A note that helps to clarify the meaning of a concept.
sub property of: note
type: NamedIndividual

semantic relation
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A concept related by meaning.
comment: This property should not be used directly, but as a super-property for all properties denoting a relationship of meaning between concepts.
domain: Concept
range: Concept
type: NamedIndividual

top concept in scheme
type: ObjectProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: Relates a concept to the concept scheme that it is a top level concept of.
domain: Concept
range: Concept Scheme
inverse of: has top concept
sub property of: in scheme
type: NamedIndividual

notation
type: DatatypeProperty
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A notation, also known as classification code, is a string of characters such as "T58.5" or "303.4833" used to uniquely identify a concept within the scope of a given concept scheme.
comment: By convention, skos:notation is used with a typed literal in the object position of the triple.
type: NamedIndividual

Collection
type: Class
disjoint with: Concept
disjoint with: Concept Scheme
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: A meaningful collection of concepts.
comment: Labelled collections can be used with collectable semantic relation properties e.g. skos:narrower, where you would like a set of concepts to be displayed under a 'node label' in the hierarchy.
type: NamedIndividual

Concept
type: Class
disjoint with: Concept Scheme
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: An abstract idea or notion; a unit of thought.
type: NamedIndividual

Concept Scheme
type: Class
issued: 2008-05-xx
comment: A concept scheme may be defined to include concepts from different sources.
definition: A set of concepts, optionally including statements about semantic relationships between those concepts.
comment: Thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, 'folksonomies', and other types of controlled vocabulary are all examples of concept schemes. Concept schemes are also embedded in glossaries and terminologies.
type: NamedIndividual

Ordered Collection
type: Class
subclass of: Collection
issued: 2008-05-xx
definition: An ordered collection of concepts, where both the grouping and the ordering are meaningful.
comment: Ordered collections can be used with collectable semantic relation properties, where you would like a set of concepts to be displayed in a specific order, and optionally under a 'node label'.
type: NamedIndividual