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Network of Ontologies – A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison

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Background: Network of ontologies is the pairwise match of a set of ontolo-gies, which became recently relevant due to its applicability in different domains, such as cultural evolution. However, the challenges faced in this area are not completely known and understood, neither are their relations to ontology matching counterpart problems. Aims: The goal of this paper is to identify challenges and applications of a network of ontologies and compare them to the 8 existing challenges of ontology matching (SHVAIKO and EUZENAT, 2013). Research questions are: (i) Which are the challenges for a Network of Ontologies? (ii) What are the applications of a Network of Ontologies? Method: We defined and executed a systematic mapping review protocol. A specialist on systematic mapping review and ontology research evaluated protocol and results. Results: Out of the 67 relevant studies, 10 addressed the research questions. All of them presented challenges, but only four presented applications. Conclusions: We identified four new challenges and related them with the eight challenges presented in (SHVAIKO and EUZENAT, 2013).
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UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO
CENTRO DE CIÊNCIAS EXATAS E TECNOLOGIA
Relatórios Técnicos
do Departamento de Informática Aplicada
da UNIRIO
n° 0005/2017
Network of Ontologies – A Systematic
Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
Fábio Santos
Kate Revoredo
Fernanda Baião
Departamento de Informática Aplicada
UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO ESTADO DO RIO DE JANEIRO
Av. Pasteur, 458, Urca - CEP 22290-240
RIO DE JANEIRO – BRASIL
  !
Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study
and Challenges Comparison *
Fábio Santos1 Kate Revoredo1
Fernanda Baião1
1Depto de Informática Aplicada – Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO)
{fabiomarcos.santos, katerevoredo, fernanda.baiao}@uniriotec.br
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___________________
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ii
!(>
1Introduction 4
2Background 4
2.1 Networks of Ontologies 4
2.2 Ontology Matching Challenges 5
3 Systematic Mapping Planning 7
4 Systematic Mapping Execution 8
4.1 Results 9
4.2 Threats to Validity 11
4.3 Further Works and Remarks 12
5 Final Considerations 12
References 13
iii
1 Introduction
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)$*! ',  **$%, *))$
')-(%')))$*1.2345467
)**%%('&)!#$%!%'#(+
$$, )$)$,  **$*$
6,  **$%B<
2 Background
$,0**<(*%A1G"47(
** -')'))  (#'$%
1G"4/7;,**%)'$ 
*,!#'$'))!% *!!,'
$$), $8%%**$ '!-+
) *', *)* $)', +
 , !$$*%**% 1C4547
)*$, )$')) -0*+
* !' ( (( $ 1;4C>34 71.23
45467)(*-!''+
$$ $ %!H%%)
)-!!,#*),1C;">.CC47)%
)$, )$1*'7*! +)$+ ,)$-
')$ ,)%%!   *0'#(
$
2.1 Network of Ontologies
9%'#($!*-)$!%) 
'#($($')($ !')+
$14547()#!,((#(14+
5471C;">.CC47'#($$
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
4
<, !%, ')') *1$$7
$  *$ $) 1C;" >.CC4 7
)!%, ) -- ,!((),*& +
$  *!,)'#D* '))'#
)*$, * ))D)$,)' !%
*$)'##'$15;;4;=7
)'#')$$!%(- 
!%%(%,)%$)-*%$%,!')
$$*!,% (,  %$(($1454+
.2367 
E ,$(('$$147'(,
($$,% $)*!!,'%% !+
$4$,.'- $$$, ,%+
-**$*1>C4=7)**)!%
' *$$,(4( ))"%$1I45+
EG47!$ )$%(%
 )%$*! 
@!!,)!*!%'#($#*$ 
$* !, %!  ),  *, -- 1I45+
EG47.'-*$ ')%*!%+
%)$)$$ ,! * '))*+
()#),)%)*-14547)('#
($, ,!%))(-%)$
*!')-')#*$() $
!$$)'#
)('#($' *')$$*
!,157),(()%(%$ $$)
%') )') '# ( ) )))',
1GJ;45+@K45I45+EG4L7)')!) ,!%
!%'#)**) )$,$'#(+
$
 *')$** ,)
 ) ! *  #  $  !' $ ) !$ 
'#)$$A'#)-! ')%**+
$)* ( )'#(<--
(%-!$ * (%$%*)*+
! 8%)*'$, )$*1.23454+
67:
)%!%'))*!  ,)$)'
)!%'( %)8%*6.'+
-!($))$(%%%,'-'))+
$**!,4%A1.2345467()#(), 
'#0
2.2 Ontology Matching Challenges
)-#4%A ,*)$()6 )$+
)8%1.2345467-$')'!$+
)), --'-$ )$)8%'#
)*)(%%'#)**(%)8%&M)<
#$*$:)*$$<%$)*%%(%)):(
'))*%,* $:M
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
5
)***',))8%)* $
'))$!$()-#4%A<)$
$))'))'*!
0*!'1.2345467&
 C$+ )$ -%  !% )' -% )$ *
') --$ )-  )  (  ;%,
)#$)* %(!8%$ %$!+
) # )$,"**)'! $ +
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)%)**) %  )$1.23
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')%$ %+$)8%( '# ) +
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)$ * >)$% )'  ( - %  ** !
$ ) !% * -$) %-,
$ ( %$) %,#'$)%((+
%1.2345467
-$  $ !%*-$(%%%**
- ')$)%(, $%
))'#)- !!#$%,(
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
6
-%( )!%**# 4(-*
'(($-)()-!! +
)#$, )$(-*$ +
$$1.2345467
Table 1.$,;)$>)$)% A1.2345467
>)$ )
17C$+ )$-% ;%  )$
174(<,( )$)8% @A!%**+
0  %A*+
A.
17;)$')!#$%#'$ 3'$8%,$%
1-7;) !%+
$ $* A
1-7--  !,
1-740*( )$% !,A
1-7!- )$ %')
1-7$  $ &(%%
%** A
3 Systematic Mapping Planning
)$(,  **$*%-%!%*%+
*')%!$!!,))',('#*)
!<* )))%-(,!,) -)%
%)'#13>.4.;>.47)0(), 
**$  )$ ** ') )$  (<%   $,
'#
%**,  **$,'<))8%!
'))$%@%!')*E&+
)$0%%$%$&!()*%+
!)<*')<%$
)%1>70%14>71)'!67)&*%!+
)*'<,-(,(),, )<

Table 2.)F%
O ;)F% O ,)F%
F
9)))$
'#($
)-!(%)+
%:
F
9)),*()$ ,
'#($01 )
*$!+
)7 *')
$,*$:
F )$'#($
0) !
1.2345467:
F6 9)'))-)%!
*%!):
FB 9))) )$)-
!(':
F .-'#(+
$!%%+
,***: F ')'#($
!$**:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
7
Table 3.%1>740%14>7>
> )*%!<**!)$!% '#(
$
4> )*%!)-!,!'
4$),-(',%'%
)*%!
4>6 )*%!-( *-'(H%
4>B )*%!)'%$('#($ %

4> )*%!!#)*%!H*+-'1%)
$( (**7)+<*%!1%)
')**7
E!)$))$'(( $
 !  $ ) 9 !) ('$ ) $&1 M$,
'#M  M$,'#M  M$'#M M$
'#M  M$,$ '#M  M'#($M 
M'#($,MM'#($MM'#($,M7
CC1)$(<%*(*(*
%,0*M%,MM)M)
#M)MM)M, #(7
*%1'''*% 7)$'%!*!
%%0 **
4 Systematic Mapping Execution
P%))0*'0%*%)$%$=
*%!)*%B6*%!())* +
9<,-%')0%$))$*%!+
%**,0!,*%$!B**%!
)*-(%!H'-!,)-,(-')**
'*%!)
Table 4.**( *$
O %)@%!Q%
C !)3M> *!%'#($ +
 $& >$, )**)MAxiomathes6 **/+6
17
4%A  P  M-    '#  (  $MArticial intelligence-/
**L+=17
64%A P ME 0*   %% $  * 10
-7MEuropean Semantic Web Conference*$@%!)$
**+61B7
BC !0@F$CM!%$$$) $+%%')0+
 '# !, * ($ MData & Knowledge Enginee-
ring-/=**L+167
C%>C ;5  >%M&!% +
($$MORE**/+/=167
6) 4' ME  *< ( $, '#MThe Semantic
Web: Research and Applications**//+/17
RA    $  ;A    4'  ) M;#$  $, +
)*0*$,'#MAMW-BL17
/)4'$;AA M;$'!8%,+
!   , MInternational Journal of Web Information Sys -
tems-B**6L=+B17
93%A -  % ;#'#M>)')*
$ MProceedings of the 5th International Conference on On-
tology Matching. -=/L**+6=17
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
8
PF%MS*$$,'#M The seman-
tic web: research and applications**/=6+/=1L7
8%,%*%)0*,  **$,A
*')**(%0% $
*%!-H%$ (%!H-,)8%1!)* ,
,7--%$%,@!B,T
)9-%)***!$$)-+
8%,%)%$))*, *)!,**,$0%+
14>7)$%**'*+-'',
)**%)** )$*'**
E,)('))#***,  **$*
)(*1!67( **'-%+
()*'% A>)$'-%+
$)0* **$;**,% +
A))$%$'',!$')
,A)**),)A +*%***)'
) )$
4.1 Results
E )**%$( ),  **$'<B')+
$*<,'#($ 9))$
**%((%%'# )**(%%$'#($
')('$ &)) '! ,+
 !% '!#( ) *) )
'()%()'#-**
9*'FF!)'$)$**
'))),9)-(%(%)$&'#,
'#-*$'# $ +'#
)$) < ) '  ))
)()'(!, )'# ($ <*
 
1I45+EG47'* )$,!%+
$ $(,.'-<-
'#($ %$%$) $+
'#%!)$),*-'#- 
)%$))$, )$*! ', !,)
%)')) )$'#0%,$-,
'#,*( '#$ *-
*$'#(,9),*#-
'#%)$)!$,')'#-$*+
( )$*)*! '-1.23454+
67
Table 5.<>)$**
@*O
1(
!B7
'#(
$
< >)$ **
'# , +
 
'# -*+
$ 
6'# -*+
$ 
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
9
B'# -  *+
$ 
'#,+
 ))
='#,+
  '!
'# -*+
$  '!))
/'#,+
 '!   +
,
L'# -*+
$ 
 '# -*+
$ 
!=')#')1*% (!
7)(%U'V)$'(%(),  **$ )+
$ ))E'$' *)'#(
$)$1)U'V7'))U)V<,
U'V)$')UV1!7
Table 6.)'>)$
New Challenges
Research Areas
'#
>
;$ 
'#>+
,+

+'#
)$
'#+
-+
*$
;%   
;)$
@A  
!%
**0 
;%A  
* A  
3'$
8%,$
%
$  
!,   
A  
%')   
#!=-A* $+
)%((%)$'(%9,) !%%')+
%!,;%  )$*A!%**0+
 %A* A$')')$
 !**%) $,'#%))#'$
8%,$'),)$% ,!)*! *+
<,  **
$MM')M'M)$*%!9 ,((
))%( %-- (% ) ,! %
'#,+'# )$'#-*+
$))!')  )'!=
))8%-*)%!,8%,*%*
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
10
!$ 8%,0*'#'),$) )$* ,!
*'))0*(,-)($+
*%'#($)%)!%)
)*$
Table 7.0'>)$
Old Challenges /
New Challenges
'#>+
;+
$ 
'#>+
,+

+'#
)$
'#+
-+
*$
17C$+ +
)$-%  
174(<,( +
)$)8%  
17;)$')
!#$%#'+
$
1-7;)+
 !
%$
 
1-7--   
1-740*(
)$%  
1-7+
!- )$  
1-7$  +
$ &(%+
%%**
 
9'!T,* %!%,  **$,8%+
$$FF'*!!=)$
**!((<-'!%')(%,#$'%)
')%$((-(!U)V$$F6'
(%) ()***%!)(1%$),'=*+
*7')$)$)),(')***+
-,;*%!)'U>49#)*@$V')**UC+
%> *%V')=**$$FB-)%$))
)%0* ') % ))'$)
)$)-() > *%)$$F#$+
!%$*%!,'% A)** ,(
), **!,('#($%,!%),
,  .'-')U '!V
%!H')** , 
4.2 Threats to Validity
),  **$)%%))T%)
-,()%19.C7
>%)&'#($)$**'))(+
%()%,-,))!%) )+
%))*'$)( **% A%$)0*+
#'$( )%).)*%!H -(
*) ,-,$')0**(-'"%(
))%)*! )*!')$
)$)-**$')
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
11
9 %   , **') 0*  - !% **
)$**%$  A))'*+
**--()$$%,+
%- *)-*%)!')
))%.'-*% ,)- **) ,
%)$)%-)%$)**'*)<
)-$))'%(%%'#*0*$)+
*!($'))8%')-(%
>%)&(**,$0%,=LW()
**!,))$ *(,  **$*)
(%0(,('**'-!($-* % +
%))'#() )!')%
))*)*$'%)$
))*' ),)' %
)' %(**!%)) ')(%( ))%
' ,))%- ***)
)')'**'!$)8%9,(
- $ * ( .'-** ( ' - !,
'!$>$%+((,=**'(%;-
))  A!%() !(**!()
(), ,! %,-)('!-)) *( $
**')%,N%
4.3 Further Work and Remarks
",,A$<)$$) #')%$))+
- ( ! '  ), %  %$ (   )8% 
'#($0')%')('*) ,!
-')'#(')$')-*%
)***($$)(%%'#'*0), +
 **$))!;-'*)$
#-)**$**%(')9*
%0* %$ )8%'(%(,$)'#
*()**) $$*%$(%%%
90*)()$)'*)*'%+
%) '#($**% (
)$),%( )$)*
)')<(%$(($'))*(
)0()$'%)) )!(
( !%)#'$)8%%!,%+
)*$ ')),)%+
*) '*#'$, *<
**)%!,%)!,)8%$%$) 
5 Systematic Mapping Execution
)*** **$%, $(,)$'#(+
$)9')=**,<,
9(%)$,)$*!,1.23
45467'))'(% )$%'))'#''
!%$,*$ $)'#
0)'# )$*! ' **
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
12
 ,8% -$-(,()$, $+
($, )$)(%)$'(%,
)$) ! 1.23454 67 !% %$ )
( ))$'%< !')M'MMM
(!(%)((( M'M)$)
%%( MM
References
>C4>5EX@;=U$(('$$
(')$,V*$X"%;
5;5X.44M;#$$,)*0*
$,'#M;9BL
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RelaTe-DIA: Network of Ontologies– A Systematic Mapping Study and Challenges Comparison
13
... So to explore the network of ontologies issues, and try to understand the relation with the matching problems, we performed a systematic mapping study and compared the challenges we have found with the challenges presented in [3]. The complete study and its results are detailed in [5]. ...
Poster
Full-text available
Paper from the published poster at OM 2017.
... Given 2 ontologies , O 1 The set of ma pping s defines an alig nment (A). ...
Presentation
Full-text available
Presentation for the article (same name) at Ontology Matching Conference (OM 2018) collocated with International Web Semantic Conference (ISWC 2018)
... (Figure 1). This • work proposes an optimized approach for the internetwork matching challenge [1] that tries to reduce the number of pairs to be evaluated during the matching process, thus avoiding unneeded computation while preserving the alignment quality. • We are planning investigate how use the previous alignments to reduce even more the comparison costs in a internetwork matching. ...
Poster
Full-text available
This is the poster for the article accepted in the Ontology Matching 2018 Workshop collocated with International Semantic Web Conference 2018.
Thesis
Full-text available
Networks of Ontologies research deals with the need to combine several ontologies simultaneously. In a world of integrated systems (system of systems), isolated systems will be increasingly rare soon. Their integration creates opportunities to change, validate the information and add more value to an information system. This system of systems may contain ontologies to support the corresponding knowledge model. Consequently, new integration requirements may have to deal with network matching rather than single ontologies. This work delves into network matching and proposes new ways of approaching a particular case of significant ontologies matching. The work ́s contribution is the use of algebraic operations on networks to eliminate candidates before matching and to use stochastic search techniques to discover the relevant nodes. These nodes should be retained as they increase the accuracy and recovery of the final matching, even though they are identical and removed by the algebraic operation. To find out the particular relevance of each node, we propose a random walk combined with a frequent itemset approach that outperforms brute force approaches in processing time as the size of networks grows and has close precision. The approach was validated using networks of ontologies created from the OAEI ontologies. The approach selected entities to send to the matcher without losing significant preexisting matchings. Finally, two different matchers were used to obtain metrics and compare the results with the pairwise brute force approach
Article
Full-text available
The objective of this report is to propose comprehensive guidelines for systematic literature reviews appropriate for software engineering researchers, including PhD students. A systematic literature review is a means of evaluating and interpreting all available research relevant to a particular research question, topic area, or phenomenon of interest. Systematic reviews aim to present a fair evaluation of a research topic by using a trustworthy, rigorous, and auditable methodology. The guidelines presented in this report were derived from three existing guidelines used by medical researchers, two books produced by researchers with social science backgrounds and discussions with researchers from other disciplines who are involved in evidence-based practice. The guidelines have been adapted to reflect the specific problems of software engineering research. The guidelines cover three phases of a systematic literature review: planning the review, conducting the review and reporting the review. They provide a relatively high level description. They do not consider the impact of the research questions on the review procedures, nor do they specify in detail the mechanisms needed to perform meta-analysis.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
An ontology alignment is the expression of relations between different ontologies. In order to view alignments independently from the language express- ing ontologies and from the techniques used for finding the alignments, we use a category-theoretical model in which ontologies are the objects. We introduce a cat- egorical structure, called V-alignment, made of a pair of morphisms with a com- mon domain having the ontologies as codomain. This structure serves to design an algebra that describes formally what are ontology merging, alignment compo- sition, union and intersection using categorical constructions. This enables com- bining alignments of various provenance. Although the desirable properties of this algebra make such abstract manipulation of V-alignments very simple, it is prac- tically not well fitted for expressing complex alignments: expressing subsumption between entities of two different ontologies demands the definition of non-standard categories of ontologies. We consider two approaches to solve this problem. The first one extends the notion of V-alignments to a more complex structure called W-alignments: a formalization of alignments relying on "bridge axioms." The sec- ond one relies on an elaborate concrete category of ontologies that offers high ex- pressive power. We show that these two extensions have different advantages that may be exploited in different contexts (viz., merging, composing, joining or meet- ing): the first one efficiently processes ontology merging thanks to the possible use of categorical institution theory, while the second one benefits from the simplicity of the algebra of V-alignments.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The development of ontologies to the Semantic Web is based on the integration of existing ontologies favoring the modularization and reuse of them. These ontologies are used together in complex applications. However, how they are combined is usually hidden in the application code. The lack of an approach for explicitly expressing the way how ontologies are combined for a specific purpose, leads to think on ontology networks as a new ontology engineering concept. This paper formally defines the different relationships among the networked ontologies and shows how they can be modeled as an ontology network in a case study of the health domain.
Book
The Semantic Web is characterized by the existence of a very large number of distributed semantic resources, which together define a network of ontologies. These ontologies in turn are interlinked through a variety of different meta-relationships such as versioning, inclusion, and many more. This scenario is radically different from the relatively narrow contexts in which ontologies have been traditionally developed and applied, and thus calls for new methods and tools to effectively support the development of novel network-oriented semantic applications. This book by Suárez-Figueroa et al. provides the necessary methodological and technological support for the development and use of ontology networks, which ontology developers need in this distributed environment. After an introduction, in its second part the authors describe the NeOn Methodology framework. The book’s third part details the key activities relevant to the ontology engineering life cycle. For each activity, a general introduction, methodological guidelines, and practical examples are provided. The fourth part then presents a detailed overview of the NeOn Toolkit and its plug-ins. Lastly, case studies from the pharmaceutical and the fishery domain round out the work. The book primarily addresses two main audiences: students (and their lecturers) who need a textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on ontology engineering, and practitioners who need to develop ontologies in particular or Semantic Web-based applications in general. Its educational value is maximized by its structured approach to explaining guidelines and combining them with case studies and numerous examples. The description of the open source NeOn Toolkit provides an additional asset, as it allows readers to easily evaluate and apply the ideas presented.
Book
Communication is one of the main activities in software projects, many such projects fail or encounter serious problems because the stakeholders involved have different understandings of the problem domain and/or they use different terminologies. Ontologies can help to mitigate these communication problems. Calero and her coeditors mainly cover two applications of ontologies in software engineering and software techonology: sharing knowledge of the problem domain and using a common terminology among all stakeholders; and filtering the knowledge when defining models and metamodels. The editors structured the contributions into three parts: first, a detailed introduction into the use of ontologies in software engineering and software technology in general; second, the use of ontologies to conceptualize different process-related domains such as software maintenance, software measurement, or SWEBOK, initiated by IEEE; third, the use of ontologies as artifacts in several software processes, like, for example, in OMG’s MOF or MDA. By presenting the advanced use of ontologies in software research and software projects, this book is of benefit to software engineering researchers in both academia and industry.
Article
Networks of ontologies are made of a collection of logic theories, called ontologies, related by alignments. They arise naturally in distributed contexts in which theories are developed and maintained independently, such as the semantic web. In networks of ontologies, inconsistency can come from two different sources: local inconsistency in a particular ontology or alignment, and global inconsistency between them. Belief revision is well-defined for dealing with ontologies; we investigate how it can apply to networks of ontologies. We formulate revision postulates for alignments and networks of ontologies based on an abstraction of existing semantics of networks of ontologies. We show that revision operators cannot be simply based on local revision operators on both ontologies and alignments. We adapt the partial meet revision framework to networks of ontologies and show that it indeed satisfies the revision postulates. Finally, we consider strategies based on network characteristics for designing concrete revision operators.
Chapter
The experiment data from the operation is input to the analysis and interpretation. After collecting experimental data in the operation phase, we want to be able to draw conclusions based on this data. To be able to draw valid conclusions, we must interpret the experiment data.
Article
A network of aligned ontologies is a distributed system, whose components (constituent ontologies) are interacting and interoperating, the result of this interaction being, either the extension of local assertions, which are valid within each individual ontology, to global assertions holding between remote ontology syntactic entities (concepts, individuals) through a network path, or to local assertions holding between local entities of an ontology, but induced by remote ontologies, through a cycle in the network. The mechanism for achieving this interaction is the composition of relations. In this perspective, (a) we introduce the notions of local composable relations, which relate ontology entities belonging to the same ontology, remotely induced composable relations, which relate ontology entities belonging to remote ontologies through a path of ontologies and alignments in the network, and network induced local composable relations, which relate ontology entities belonging to the same ontology, but through a path of ontologies and alignments forming a cycle starting and ending at the same ontology, to characterize the logical consequences extracted from a network of aligned ontologies, and (b) we propose a category-based methodology for detecting semantic inconsistencies in networks of aligned ontologies, which is based on contravariant representable functors and on the definition of two composition operators suitable for propagating local knowledge through the network.
Article
After years of research on ontology matching, it is reasonable to consider several questions: is the field of ontology matching still making progress? Is this progress significant enough to pursue further research? If so, what are the particularly promising directions? To answer these questions, we review the state of the art of ontology matching and analyze the results of recent ontology matching evaluations. These results show a measurable improvement in the field, the speed of which is albeit slowing down. We conjecture that significant improvements can be obtained only by addressing important challenges for ontology matching. We present such challenges with insights on how to approach them, thereby aiming to direct research into the most promising tracks and to facilitate the progress of the field.