Where to search top-K biomedical ontologies?

Daniela Oliveira, Anila Sahar Butt, Armin Haller, Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann, Ratnesh Sahay

Abstract: Searching for precise terms and terminological definitions in the biomedical data space is problematic, as researchers find overlapping, closely related and even equivalent concepts in a single or multiple ontologies. Search engines that retrieve ontological resources often suggest an extensive list of search results for a given input term, which leads to the tedious task of selecting the best-fit ontological resource (class or property) for the input term and reduces user confidence in the retrieval engines. A systematic evaluation of these search engines is necessary to understand their strengths and weaknesses in different search requirements.