Ontology Change Requests
BioPortal allows users to request changes or extensions to an ontology when the ontology source file is maintained in GitHub. The change request functionality is enabled on a per-ontology basis, and there are currently four ontologies in our repository for which change requests are enabled:
- Environment Ontology (ENVO)
- Gene Ontology (GO)
- Mondo Disease Ontology (MONDO)
- Uber Anatomy Ontology (UBERON)
Change requests are mirrored as GitHub issues in the repository where the ontology is maintained.
Supported change types
BioPortal supports several types of change requests including:
- Adding a synonym to a class
- Removing a synonym from a class
- Marking a class as obsolete
- Renaming a class
Support for more types of changes are in the works including, adding and removing definitions, adding classes, and deleting classes to name a few.
All of the change types that BioPortal supports are taken from the Knowledge Graph Change Language, a formal model for describing ontology change operations.
How to enable change requests
If you want to enable BioPortal's change request functionality for your ontology, please post a request on the BioPortal support list. Include your ontology acronym in BioPortal, e.g., "MONDO", and the URL of the GitHub repository where your ontology is maintained, e.g., https://github.com/monarch-initiative/mondo.