Taxonomic names, metadata, and the Semantic Web

Page, R. D.M. (2006) Taxonomic names, metadata, and the Semantic Web. Biodiversity Informatics, 3, pp. 1-15. (doi: 10.17161/bi.v3i0.25)

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Publisher's URL: https://doi.org/10.17161/bi.v3i0.25

Abstract

Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) offer an attractive solution to the problem of globally unique identifiers for digital objects in biology. However, I suggest that in the context of taxonomic names, the most compelling benefit of adopting these identifiers comes from the metadata associated with each LSID. By using existing vocabularies wherever possible, and using a simple vocabulary for taxonomy-specific concepts we can quickly capture the essential information about a taxonomic name in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) format. This opens up the prospect of using technologies developed for the Semantic Web to add ``taxonomic intelligence" to biodiversity databases. This essay explores some of these ideas in the context of providing a taxonomic framework for the phylogenetic database TreeBASE.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Page, Professor Roderic
Authors: Page, R. D.M.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
Journal Name:Biodiversity Informatics
ISSN:1546-9735

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
135863A taxonomically intelligent phylogenetic databaseRoderic PageBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)BB/C004310/1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine