The Units Ontology: a tool for integrating units of measurement in science

Database (Oxford). 2012 Oct 10:2012:bas033. doi: 10.1093/database/bas033. Print 2012.

Abstract

Units are basic scientific tools that render meaning to numerical data. Their standardization and formalization caters for the report, exchange, process, reproducibility and integration of quantitative measurements. Ontologies are means that facilitate the integration of data and knowledge allowing interoperability and semantic information processing between diverse biomedical resources and domains. Here, we present the Units Ontology (UO), an ontology currently being used in many scientific resources for the standardized description of units of measurements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Databases as Topic*
  • Internationality
  • Phenotype
  • Programming Languages
  • Reference Standards
  • Science / methods*
  • Weights and Measures / standards*