R.: A quality assurance framework for ontology construction and refinement

Abstract The quality of an ontology is an important factor that determines its utility. In order to assure its quality, in addition to form-based evaluation as to whether the ontology being constructed is written properly in terms of its form (syntax), contentbased evaluation as to whether the ontology properly represents the target domain, whether the ontology actually serves for problem solving, etc. is also necessary. In this study, we investigate a framework for quality assurance of ontologies in Hozo, which is an environment for building/using ontologies that are being developed by the authors. As form-based evaluation, Hozo provides various assistance functions for properly editing an ontology in compliance with the rules. As content-based evaluation, Hozo introduce a method for supporting ontology evaluation thorough conceptual maps which are generated according to the user ′ s viewpoint. Key words: building ontologies, ontology evaluation, development support system. 1 Introduciton With the recent trend toward the increasing use of information in technical domains, a strong demand is arising for systematization of knowledge in various technical domains. Ontology engineering is an approach of interest for systematization of knowledge, and ontologies are being constructed in various domains such as medical science, bioinformatics, nano-technology, education, environmental engineering and so on. With this background, there is a demand for development of methodologies and tools for assisting the construction of good ontologies by experts in individual domains, as well as ontology experts