Basic Ontology for Scientific Study
by Xiaoshu Wang
About BOSS
BOSS is the acronym for Basic Ontology for Scientific Study. It is created to serve as the top ontology to describe scientific study in general terms.
The scope of BOSS is very broad in the sense the vocabularies can be used to describe all kinds of scientific studies. An incurred consequence is that BOSS has a very coarse granualarity. However, this is the effect we want to achieve with BOSS. The BOSS concept can serve as a top ontology so to help align detailed application ontologies and a place holder for recording valuable information in the absence of one.
Vocabulary of BOSS
The vocabulary of BOSS is shown in Figure 1. The reason that we model BOSS after a scientific publication is because those concepts have been used in the peer-reviewed process for ages. Hence, these concepts, such as material, method and results are both necessary and sufficient to describe a scientific study.
Figure 1: The BOSS vocabulary in the language of DLG2
Classes
Study
Conceptualization
A boss:Study conceptualize a collected efforts of a scientific investigation. Readers may ask if a boss:Study is a project or an experiment. The answer is both. BOSS does not intend to clarify the distinction between them. What BOSS intends to commit is the relationship between a scientific investigation, its method and material used and the result obtained.
Protocol
Conceptualization
A boss:Protocol is an abstraction of experimental steps but not the experiment itself. Two boss:Studies can share same protocol but not the same experiment.
Data
Conceptualization
boss:Data conceptualizes the result of a boss:Study
Properties
material and usedIn
boss:material and boss:usedIn are a pair of inverse properties. The domain for boss:material is boss:Study, which is also the range of boss:usedIn.
method and appliedIn
boss:method and boss:appliedIn are a pair of inverse properties. The domain for boss:method is boss:Study, which is also the range of boss:appliedIn. boss:Protocol serves as the domain of boss:appliedIn and the range of boss:method.
result and resultOf
boss:result and boss:resultOf are a pair of inverse properties. The domain for boss:result is boss:Study, which is also the range of boss:resultOf. boss:Data serves as the domain of boss:resultOf and the range of boss:result.
RDF Schema
The schema file defined in RDF should be retrieved from "http://www.charlestoncore.org/ontology/boss#".