Using Subject Area Ontology for Automating Processes in Sphere of Scientific Investigation and Education

Abstract

This paper presents methods of building ontologies, which are used in “ISTINA” current research information system (the name is the abbreviation for Russian equivalent of “Intellectual System for Thematic Investigation of Scientometrical Data”), used in Moscow State University and a number of other institutions. These methods include thematic analysis of scientific results present in the system; information search; context analysis of publications; a number of applications in the learning process, in particular, automatic generation of test suites and forming students’ individual learning trajectories. In the framework of the suggested approach, ontology elements (concepts and relations) are added by users of the system, which work in different branches of science, using the web editor to be described in the paper. These elements are stored in a relational database. The editor works on the client side and communicates with the server using the SPARQL query language and specially developed protocol for modifying the ontology. The concepts and relations between them may be verified by experts in the corresponding areas.