Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25937880›Full record

ArticleJournal of biomedical semantics2014

Making species checklists understandable to machines - a shift from relational databases to ontologies.

Nina Laurenne, Jouni Tuominen, Hannu Saarenmaa, Eero Hyvönen

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of biomedical semantics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Stop using racist, unethical, and inappropriate names in taxonomy.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  2. The relational modeling of hierarchical data in biodiversity databases.Database : the journal of biological databases and curation · 2024
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Nina LaurenneSemantic Computing Research Group (SeCo), Department of Media Technology, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
Jouni TuominenSemantic Computing Research Group (SeCo), Department of Media Technology, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
Hannu SaarenmaaDigitarium, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland.
Eero HyvönenSemantic Computing Research Group (SeCo), Department of Media Technology, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe scientific names of plants and animals play a major role in Life Sciences as information is indexed, integrated, and searched using scientific names. The main problem with names is their ambiguous nature, because more than one name may point to the same taxon and multiple taxa may share the same name. In addition, scientific names change over time, which makes them open to various interpretations. Applying machine-understandable semantics to these names enables efficient processing of biological content in information systems. The first step is to use unique persistent identifiers instead of name strings when referring to taxa. The most commonly used identifiers are Life Science Identifiers (LSID), which are traditionally used in relational databases, and more recently HTTP URIs, which are applied on the Semantic Web by Linked Data applications.

resultsWe introduce two models for expressing taxonomic information in the form of species checklists. First, we show how species checklists are presented in a relational database system using LSIDs. Then, in order to gain a more detailed representation of taxonomic information, we introduce meta-ontology TaxMeOn to model the same content as Semantic Web ontologies where taxa are identified using HTTP URIs. We also explore how changes in scientific names can be managed over time.

conclusionsThe use of HTTP URIs is preferable for presenting the taxonomic information of species checklists. An HTTP URI identifies a taxon and operates as a web address from which additional information about the taxon can be located, unlike LSID. This enables the integration of biological data from different sources on the web using Linked Data principles and prevents the formation of information silos. The Linked Data approach allows a user to assemble information and evaluate the complexity of taxonomical data based on conflicting views of taxonomic classifications. Using HTTP URIs and Semantic Web technologies also facilitate the representation of the semantics of biological data, and in this way, the creation of more "intelligent" biological applications and services.

Indexed as

HTTP URILinked dataLSIDOntologyScientific nameSemantic webSpecies checklistTaxonomic concept

Identifiers

PMID25937880
PMCPMC4417522

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.