Principle: Naming Conventions (principle 12)

• Overview
• Open (principle 1)
• Common Format (principle 2)
• URI/Identifier Space (principle 3)
• Versioning (principle 4)
• Scope (principle 5)
• Textual Definitions (principle 6)
• Relations (principle 7)
• Documentation (principle 8)
• Documented Plurality of Users (principle 9)
• Commitment To Collaboration (principle 10)
• Locus of Authority (principle 11)
• Naming Conventions (principle 12)
• Notification of Changes (principle 13)
• Guidelines (principle 14)
• Maintenance (principle 16)
• Stability of Term Meaning (principle 19)
• Responsiveness (principle 20)

NOTE

The content of this page is scheduled to be reviewed. Improved wording will be posted as it becomes available.

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Summary

The names (primary labels) for elements (classes, properties, etc.) in an ontology SHOULD be unique among OBO Foundry ontologies, MUST be unique within its own ontology, and SHOULD be written in accepted format.

Purpose

Primary labels are a major mechanism by which terms are referenced. Accordingly, it is important that labels be unique, unambiguous, and formatted for ease of reading and comprehension. Non-unique labels (sometimes for terms that mean very different things) may cause confusion for human users and may prevent some ontology editing tools from full access to terms (for example, when crafting axioms). Labels that are ambiguous cause difficulty when users are trying to identify a term that matches their intention.

Recommendations and Requirements

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For full details, see this paper: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/125

Briefly, some important things to remember:

• There MUST be exactly one rdfs:label for every declared entity (e.g. class, property)
• Labels MUST be unique within an ontology and SHOULD be unique within the wider OBO Foundry
• Format requirements
  • Write labels and synonyms using plain English text
    • Use spaces to separate words
    • Only capitalize proper names (e.g. Parkinson disease)
    • Do not use CamelCase
    • Do not use under_scores
  • Avoid extra spaces between words, or at the beginning or end of the term label
  • Spell out abbreviations. Abbreviations can be included as alternative labels (i.e., synonyms)
• Primary labels SHOULD be as unambiguous as possible. An ontology may be used in a context that differs from that for which it was originally intended, including being combined with other ontologies.
• Optimally, each label SHOULD be unambiguous even without looking at parent terms

Implementation

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• Use rdfs:label for the primary label
• use the IAO property ‘obo foundry unique label’ http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_0000589 to declare a pan-OBO unique label if required

Examples

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Counter Examples

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Criteria for Review

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Feedback and Discussion