A survey of methods that transform data models into Ontology models

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the methods available to (semi-)automatically generate an Ontology model from a data model. Although there are several different instantiations of database management systems in use today, the transformation methods to date have generally focused on relational data models as the prime source of the information; we therefore concentrated on this when comparing the various reported methods of transformation from data models to Ontology models. These methods generated different Ontology representations. The richness and expressiveness of these Ontology models differed widely also. In our survey, we developed a comparison framework that allowed us to evaluate the methods in a consistent manner. This framework was then used to compare seventeen different reported methods, which, to the best of our knowledge, cover all the available methods for generating Ontology models from data models to date.