Phased Evaluation of Ontologies with Domain and Ontology Experts

Alex Randles, Declan O'Sullivan

Keywords: Semantic Web, Ontologies, Ontology Evaluation; Design Methodology

Abstract: Ontologies provide an agreed shared terminology which can be used to meaningfully communicate knowledge in a domain. Ontologies are often used in the semantic web to facilitate interoperability of linked data. However, creating high-quality ontologies is a complex and time-consuming task, which should be closely guided. Evaluating an ontology with respect to its application and users is an important step to validate the data modeling abilities. This paper presents an ontology evaluation methodology which was applied during the development of two ontologies which we have previously published. This methodology includes several evaluation methods which were applied during their development to iteratively validate requirements with software tools and expert feedback. The methodology includes evaluations to validate in a structured format the design of ontologies with both domain experts and ontological design experts.

Submission Number: 4