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Ontology Design Patterns

Dive into a comprehensive repository of Ontology Design Patterns (ODPs) — reusable solutions to common ontology modeling challenges.
Explore, contribute, and collaborate with a global community of ontology practitioners. Together, we create smarter, more connected data ecosystems.

Featured paper
Semantic Representation of Processes with Ontology Design Patterns
Ebrahim Norouzi, Sven Hertling, Jörg Waitelonis, and Harald Sack
arXiv:2509.23776 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23776

What’s in scope?

This repository focuses on ODPs for process modeling in Materials Science & Engineering (MSE).
It aligns with the three core requirements identified in the paper:

  1. Process Structure — Model processes, sub-processes, steps, and execution order.
  2. Data & Resources — Capture inputs, outputs, and parameters per step (e.g., temperature, pressure, atmosphere, instruments, calibration).
  3. Project & Roles — Represent project goals, stages, agents, and their roles (e.g., synthesis, microscopy, simulation).

You’ll find extracted patterns and reusable modules derived from ontologies such as P-PLAN, PMDcore, M4I, OPMW, and GPO.

How to start

  1. Create a new issue describing your pattern idea or contribution.
  2. Copy the template from Patterns/template.md into a new folder for your pattern.
  3. Fill the template with all key information (motivation, intent, competency questions, diagram, examples, references).
  4. Add a link to your new pattern in the appropriate index page or collection.

Tip: If your pattern targets one of the three requirements above, mention it explicitly so others can discover it quickly.

Cite this work

If this repository or its methodology helps your research, please cite:

```bibtex @article{norouzi2025semantic, title={Semantic Representation of Processes with Ontology Design Patterns}, author={Norouzi, Ebrahim and Hertling, Sven and Waitelonis, J{\"o}rg and Sack, Harald}, journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.23776}, year={2025}, url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23776} }