Coming to Terms with FAIR Ontologies

Abstract

Ontologies are widely used nowadays for many different purposes and in many different contexts, like industry and research, and in domains ranging from geosciences, biology, chemistry or medicine. When used for research, ontologies should be treated as other research artefacts, such as data, software, methods, etc.; following the same principles used to make them findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) to others. However, in comparison to the number of guides, indicators and recommendations available for making research data FAIR, not much attention has been paid so far on how to publish ontologies following the FAIR principles. This position paper reviews the technical and social needs required to define a roadmap for generating and publishing FAIR ontologies on the Web. We analyze four initiatives for ontology publication, aligning them in a common framework for comparison. The paper concludes by opening a discussion about existing, ongoing and required initiatives and instruments to facilitate FAIR ontology sharing on the Web.KeywordsFAIR principlesOntologiesSemantics