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Initiative Publications

This repository follows a structured and transparent publishing approach to support traceability, stability, and reuse of the Health-RI Ontology and its artifacts.

Versioning Policy

We use an adapted semantic versioning scheme to indicate the type and impact of changes:

Format: <major>.<minor>.<patch>

  • Major: Conceptual milestones or structural overhauls.
  • Minor: Any scoped modifications, including additions, refinements, or reorganizations that preserve semantic compatibility.
  • Patch: Fixes or clarifications that stay within the established scope (e.g., label corrections, comment improvements).

While inspired by Semantic Versioning, this adapted strategy is tailored for ontology and conceptual model management.

Note

Only major versions will trigger a formal release and will have a corresponding published specification webpage. These releases are considered stable versions, and intended for broader reuse and citation.

Info

We adopt a fast versioning strategy: files are made available in the /ontology folder as soon as possible, even when they may present smaller completion or consistency issues. This enables early access and collaboration, while stability is guaranteed only for major releases.

Published Artifacts

For each ontology release, the following artifacts are published — always in both ontologies/latest/ and ontologies/versioned/ folders.

Note

gUFO files are only generated for versions of the model that are syntactically valid. As a result, no .ttl file will be provided for versions that are still incomplete or under development.

Info

The version numbers of the .vpp/.json (OntoUML) and .ttl (OWL/gUFO) files are managed independently. The .ttl file includes a dcterms:conformsTo metadata relation to indicate which OntoUML version it corresponds to.

<https://w3id.org/health-ri/ontology#> dcterms:conformsTo <https://w3id.org/health-ri/ontouml-v0.3.0> .

Mapping Artifacts – Coming Soon

Information about the mapping outputs will be added in a future update. Their design and structure are still under discussion and will be published once finalized.

Repository Structure

All current artifacts are made available in the /ontologies folder:

ontologies/
│
├── latest/
│   ├── health-ri-ontology.vpp
│   ├── health-ri-ontology.json
│   ├── health-ri-ontology.ttl
│   ├── documentations/
│   │   ├── documentation.md
│   │   └── specification.html
│   └── images/
│       └── *.png   # Exported PNG images of all diagrams
│
├── versioned/
│   ├── health-ri-ontology-vX.Y.Z.json
│   ├── health-ri-ontology-vX.Y.Z.vpp
│   ├── health-ri-ontology-vX.Y.Z.ttl
│   └── documentations/
│       ├── documentation-vX.Y.Z.md
│       └── specification-vX.Y.Z.html
│
├── changelog.md
└── ...

What does 'latest' mean?

The latest/ folder always mirrors the contents of the highest published version. This provides stable, convenient access to the most recent files without needing to specify a version number.

Where are the images of the diagrams?

The images/ folder — containing exported PNG versions of all OntoUML diagrams — is only provided under the latest/ folder.
These images are always generated from the most recent .vpp file and are not versioned individually.

Archive and Change History

  • Only the latest version of each artifact is visible directly in the ontologies/latest/ folder.
  • All previous versions are organized in the ontologies/versioned/ directory for transparency and reproducibility.
  • A changelog file (changelog.md) summarizes all version changes and links them to their respective files and semantic impact.
  • The changelog follows the Keep a Changelog format.
  • It is generated and maintained with the support of an AI-assisted tool to ensure consistency and clarity.

Looking for PID details?

The full description of all Permanent Identifiers (PIDs) — including format-specific URIs for each version — is documented separately. Access the complete description at: Permanent Identifiers.