by Barry Smith, Michael Ashburner, Cornelius Rosse, Jonathan Bard, William Bug, Werner Ceusters, Louis J Goldberg, Karen Eilbeck, Amelia Ireland, Christopher J Mungall, Neocles Leontis, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Alan Ruttenberg, Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Richard H Scheuermann, Nigam Shah, Patricia L Whetzel, Suzanna Lewis
Abstract:
The value of any kind of data is greatly enhanced when it exists in a form that allows it to be integrated with other data. One approach to integration is through the annotation of multiple bodies of data using common controlled vocabularies or 'ontologies'. Unfortunately, the very success of this approach has led to a proliferation of ontologies, which itself creates obstacles to integration. The Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) consortium is pursuing a strategy to overcome this problem. Existing OBO ontologies, including the Gene Ontology, are undergoing coordinated reform, and new ontologies are being created on the basis of an evolving set of shared principles governing ontology development. The result is an expanding family of ontologies designed to be interoperable and logically well formed and to incorporate accurate representations of biological reality. We describe this OBO Foundry initiative and provide guidelines for those who might wish to become involved.
Reference:
The OBO Foundry: coordinated evolution of ontologies to support biomedical data integration. (Barry Smith, Michael Ashburner, Cornelius Rosse, Jonathan Bard, William Bug, Werner Ceusters, Louis J Goldberg, Karen Eilbeck, Amelia Ireland, Christopher J Mungall, Neocles Leontis, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Alan Ruttenberg, Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Richard H Scheuermann, Nigam Shah, Patricia L Whetzel, Suzanna Lewis), In Nature Biotechnology, Nature Publishing Group, volume 25, 2007.
Bibtex Entry:
@article{Smith2007,
abstract = {The value of any kind of data is greatly enhanced when it exists in a form that allows it to be integrated with other data. One approach to integration is through the annotation of multiple bodies of data using common controlled vocabularies or 'ontologies'. Unfortunately, the very success of this approach has led to a proliferation of ontologies, which itself creates obstacles to integration. The Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) consortium is pursuing a strategy to overcome this problem. Existing OBO ontologies, including the Gene Ontology, are undergoing coordinated reform, and new ontologies are being created on the basis of an evolving set of shared principles governing ontology development. The result is an expanding family of ontologies designed to be interoperable and logically well formed and to incorporate accurate representations of biological reality. We describe this OBO Foundry initiative and provide guidelines for those who might wish to become involved.},
author = {Smith, Barry and Ashburner, Michael and Rosse, Cornelius and Bard, Jonathan and Bug, William and Ceusters, Werner and Goldberg, Louis J and Eilbeck, Karen and Ireland, Amelia and Mungall, Christopher J and Leontis, Neocles and Rocca-Serra, Philippe and Ruttenberg, Alan and Sansone, Susanna-Assunta and Scheuermann, Richard H and Shah, Nigam and Whetzel, Patricia L and Lewis, Suzanna},
institution = {Department of Philosophy and New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14203, USA. phismith@buffalo.edu},
journal = {Nature Biotechnology},
keywords = {SML-LIB-BIBLIO,lang:ENG},
mendeley-tags = {SML-LIB-BIBLIO,lang:ENG},
number = {11},
pages = {1251--1255},
publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
title = {{The OBO Foundry: coordinated evolution of ontologies to support biomedical data integration.}},
url = {http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17989687},
volume = {25},
year = {2007}
}