BioPortal Mappings

This page defines common mappings types in the NCBO BioPortal and provides examples of different mappings that already exist in BioPortal. We welcome comments on this set of mapping relations. Please send email to support@bioontology.org.

BioPortal Mapping Types

There are mappings of the following types in BioPortal:

• identical, the same : owl:sameAs
  • Definition (from OWL): owl:sameAs is used to state that two URI references refer to the same individual
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• exact match: skos:exactMatch
  • Definition (from SKOS): The property skos:exactMatch is used to link two concepts, indicating a high degree of confidence that the concepts can be used interchangeably across a wide range of information retrieval applications. skos:exactMatch is a transitive property, and is a sub-property of skos:closeMatch.
• close match: skos:closeMatch
  • Definition (from SKOS): The property skos:closeMatch is used to link two concepts that are sufficiently similar that they can be used interchangeably in some information retrieval applications. In order to avoid the possibility of "compound errors" when combining mappings across more than two concept schemes, skos:closeMatch is not declared to be a transitive property.
• related (but not necessarily similar): rdfs:seeAlso
  • Definition (from RDFS): The property rdfs:seeAlso specifies a resource that might provide additional information about the subject resource.
• homologous to (for anatomical terms): not defined yet
  • Definition: The property links two anatomical terms from different species that refer to terms that have a common ancestor (evolutionary derived form a common ancestor).

Survey of BioPortal Mappings

The table below presents the statistics and examples of BioPortal mappings as of July 2010.

relationship	basis	Manual/Automatic	Source	Total mappings	Notes
skos:closeMatch	identical UMLS CUIs	Manual	LEXEVS_UMLS_MAPPER	2,028,186	Mappings between terms in UMLS ontologies that were created automatically, linking terms with the same CUI. Because CUIs were assigned manually by UMLS editors, we treat these mapings as manual mappings
skos:closeMatch	lexical similarity	Automatic	LOOM	1,449,303	Mappings were generated by the LOOM algorithm automatically based on close lexical match between preferred names of terms or a preferred name and a synonym
skos:closeMatch	lexical similarity	Automatic		2,562	Mappings were generated automatically based on the exact match of preferred names or synonyms for terms in FMA, ZFA, and mouse anatomy. Note: These mappings are likely homology mappings
skos:closeMatch	lexical similarity	Automatic with manual review		628	Mappings were generated manually by a user and uploaded to BioPortal. The mappings were generated automatically based on lexical similarity but later manually reviewed by a domain expert. All mappings involve terms in the MGED ontology
owl:sameAs	shared id	Manual	LOOM	271,000	Mappings between the terms that share the same ID
rdfs:seeAlso	OBO xref	Manual		17,776	Mappings based on OBO xref mappings, which indicate related terms
skos:exactMatch	Dbxref	Manual		7,028	Mappings based on the use of Dbxref to indicate term reuse in OBO Foundry ontologies. Very close to having identical ids, but because the ids are different, we use exact match rather than owl:sameAs
skos:exactMatch		Manual		68	Mappings generated manually by a user; all involve terms from NEMO
skos:closeMatch	identical UMLS CUIs	Manual		902	Mappings between non-UMLS ontologies where concepts do have cui. So, technically, similar to inter-cui mappings
skos:closeMatch		Manual	BioPortal UI	117	Mappings created by users through the BioPortal user interface
skos:closeMatch		Manual	NCICB	3078	Manual mappings between Mouse anatomy and NCIT
skos:closeMatch	lexical similarity	Automatic	EFO	673	Mappings generated automatically based on lexical similarity
skos:closeMatch		Manual	NLM	2,662	Manual mappings between Mouse anatomy and NCIT