OBI Minimal metadata
This list represents the mandatory and optional metadata for representational units as agreed by the OBI coordinator committee.
The proposed cardinalities are indicated in front of the name of the annotation property. Some are however still under discussion.
Mandatory metadata: MUST be provided for both classes and relations
- preferred_term: The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property preferred by the ontology developers that reflects community usage, or disambiguates the term if necessary. (before 16.10.07 this was: The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property
- Cardinality: 1..1
- Implementation: datatype annotation property specified as a functional property named "preferred_term".
- definition: The official OBI definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with informal definitions to further explain the meaning of the term.
- Cardinality: 1..1
- Implementation: datatype annotation property specified as a functional property named "definition".
- definition_editor: The name of the editor of the definition.
- Cardinality: 1..n
- definition_source: An unambiguous and traceable reference to the source of the definition. Examples: ISBN, URI plus date, MeSH Term, PUBMED ID, DOI.
- Cardinality: 1..n
- Implementation: datatype annotation property named "definition_source". See guidelines for providing sources for term definitions.
- curation_status: The curation status of a class or property. The allowed values must come from this enumerated list of predefined terms:
| order | value | definition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | uncurated | Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term |
| 2 | metadata_incomplete | Class is being worked on; however, the metadata (including definition) are not complete or sufficiently clear to the branch editors. |
| 3 | metadata_complete | Class has all its metadata, but is either not guaranteed to be in its final location in the asserted IS_A hierarchy or refers to another class that is not complete. |
| 4 | pending_final_vetting | All definitions, placement in the asserted IS_A hierarchy and required minimal metadata are complete. The class is awaiting a final review by someone other than the definition editor. |
| 5 | ready_for_release | Class has undergone final review, is ready for use, and will be included in the next OBI release. |
- Cardinality: 1..1
- Implementation: enumerated value
Optional metadata: SHOULD be provided
- example of usage: A phrase describing how a term should be used. May also include other kinds of examples, such as widely known subclasses or instances of the class. Although essential for high level terms, examples for low level terms (e.g., Affymetrix HU133 array) are not.
- Cardinality: 0..1
- Implementation: datatype annotation property named "example_of_usage".
- alternative_term: An alternative name for a class or property which means the same thing, i.e. semantically equivalent, as the preferredterm.
- Cardinality: 0..n
- Implementation: datatype annotation property
- editor_note: An administrative note intended for the editor. It will not be included in the publication version of the ontology, so it should contain nothing necessary for end users to understand the ontology.
- Cardinality: 0..n
- Implementation: datatype annotation property
