A study on ontology building methods: understanding of the features and requirements

Ontologies are effective tools for organizing and retrieving information. They are more compatible with semantic information retrieval systems and environment. Several methods and approaches have been proposed for designing and building ontologies. The aim of this study is to categorize ontology building methods and identify their important features and requirements.

The present research is a qualitative study using meta-synthesis method to analyze selected studies (include scientific journal and conference papers from available resources) in the area of designing and building ontologies. Accordingly, 59 articles were selected and reviewed among resources. After analyzing articles, a framework includes identified designing and building ontologies methods’ categories and features were presented.

Based on the analysis of the studies, 140 codes, 43 concepts and 10 categories were obtained. The categories include: social and user-centered; Philosophical approaches and methods based on logic, mathematics and probability; Knowledge organization approaches; Methods based on the application of engineering principles; Methods based on natural text and language processing; Automatic and semi-automatic building methods; Facilitated environment-based and software supported building methods; Risk analysis methods; Methods focused on acquiring knowledge and Methods based on the integration of existing ontologies.

Originality: 

Present study is one of the first one which analyze ontology building approaches using meta-synthesis method. It provides a general framework and guidance for researchers who want to create ontologies in different subject domains. The proposed framework can be used to select suitable method based on different features and prerequisites for creating ontology.