OSO is a FAIR and interoperable ontology for marine observatories, ocean observation systems, and marine research infrastructures (EMSO, Argo, and related infrastructures).
- IRI: https://w3id.org/earthsemantics/OSO
- Version: 1.1.0
- License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Publisher: EMSO ERIC
- Creators: EMSO Data Management Service Group (DMSG), Ifremer
- FAIRsharing DOI: https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.654931
- DOI (Zenodo): https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19497913
OSO is designed to describe marine observatories and ocean observation systems in a FAIR and interoperable way.
OSO (Observatories of the Seas Ontology) provides a semantic framework to describe marine observatories, including those operated by EMSO ERIC as well as observatories managed by national nodes such as EMSO-France or developed within research projects.
Version 1.1.0 further improves FAIR metadata, provenance information, ontology engineering metadata, semantic interoperability, machine-readable accessibility, and FAIR assessment compatibility.
Not to be confused with OpenScienceOntology (OSO) or Ontology for Scenario Orchestration (OSO).
The ontology supports the FAIR management, discovery, and reuse of marine observation data.
OSO covers:
- Marine observatories (coastal and deep-sea)
- Ocean observation systems (fixed and mobile platforms, including floats)
- Marine research infrastructures (EMSO, Argo, national observatories)
- Scientific campaigns via CSR (Cruise Summary Reports)
- Links between infrastructures, datasets, and publications (DOIs)
This makes OSO suitable for integration in European and international marine data ecosystems.
- Ontology IRI (persistent): https://w3id.org/earthsemantics/OSO
- Documentation (HTML): https://emso-eric.github.io/oso-ontology/
- LOV entry: https://lov.linkeddata.es/dataset/lov/vocabs/oso
- WebVOWL visualisation: https://service.tib.eu/webvowl/#iri=https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO
- EarthPortal entry: https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO
- SPARQL endpoint (Virtuoso): https://virtuoso.ifremer.fr/oso/sparql
The ontology is available in machine-readable formats:
- RDF (Turtle, RDF/XML, OWL/XML)
- Persistent HTTP IRI (w3id)
- EarthPortal distribution endpoints
- GitHub raw access
- Turtle (.ttl): https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO.ttl
- RDF/XML: https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO.rdf
- OWL/XML: https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO.owl
- CSV export: https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO.csv
- Ontology diff: https://earthportal.eu/ontologies/OSO.diff
OSO is accessible through a public SPARQL endpoint backed by Virtuoso.
The endpoint provides:
- query the ontology and its instances using SPARQL
- explore relationships between observatories, sites, platforms and projects
- integrate OSO within semantic data infrastructures
See https://virtuoso.ifremer.fr/oso/
- Provide a semantic model for marine observatories and ocean observation systems
OSO aims to:
- Provide a common vocabulary for describing marine observatories and their components
- Enhance interoperability across European marine research infrastructures
- Support data publication and discovery in FAIR-compliant data portals
- Enable semantic interoperability between marine data infrastructures
- Align with widely adopted ontologies and standards
major ontology refactoring with strengthened semantic interoperability, extensive enrichment of the marine observatory knowledge graph, broader reuse of community standards and external identifiers, enhanced geospatial modelling, and improved FAIR compliance.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Classes | 84 |
| Properties | 172 |
| Individuals | 761 |
| RDF triples | 15107 |
| OWL axioms | 24767 |
This ontology is progressively aligned with the FAIR principles using the O'FAIRe evaluation framework.
🧪 Current FAIR score: https://earthportal.eu/ajax/fair_score/html/?ontologies=OSO
Feedback and contributions are welcome to further improve FAIR compliance.
RegionalFacility
└─ Site
└─ SubSite
└─ Platform
└─ SubPlatform
RegionalFacility, Site, SubSite, Platform, SubPlatform,
ResearchInfrastructure, Organisation, Project, Cruise,
Discipline, Person, Geometry, BoundingBox
| Vocabulary | Purpose |
|---|---|
dcterms: |
Metadata |
foaf: |
Organisations & persons |
schema: |
Web interoperability |
geosparql: |
Geospatial |
sosa: / ssn: |
Sensors & observations |
prov: |
Provenance |
cerif: |
Research infrastructures |
OSO follows Semantic Versioning (SemVer):
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| MAJOR | breaking changes |
| MINOR | extensions |
| PATCH | fixes |
Example: 1.0.2 → 1.0.3
The ontology is developed collaboratively within the EMSO Data Management Service Group (DMSG).
Workflow:
- modelling with Protégé
- editing with VSCodium
- version control via GitHub
- alignment with reference ontologies
- FAIR evaluation using O'FAIRe
This repository follows Conventional Commits:
feat: add Organisation alignment with CERIF
fix: correct domain of oso:containsSite
docs: update ontology metadata
refactor: reorganise platform hierarchy
marine ontology, ocean observation ontology, marine observatories, research infrastructure ontology, EMSO, Argo, FAIR data, semantic interoperability, marine data infrastructure
OSO – Observatories of the Seas Ontology Version 1.1.0 EMSO ERIC / Ifremer FAIRsharing DOI: https://doi.org/10.25504/FAIRsharing.654931
OSO is designed to be fully interoperable within the Semantic Web ecosystem.
The ontology provides:
- persistent IRIs via w3id
- machine-readable RDF serialisations
- SPARQL query access
- DCAT and VoID descriptions
- FAIRsharing and LOV indexing
- multilingual metadata
- provenance and versioning metadata
- semantic alignments with external ontologies and registries
OSO follows FAIR and Linked Open Data best practices.
Contributions are welcome:
- GitHub issues: https://github.com/emso-eric/oso-ontology/issues
- Suggestions and improvements
- Ontology extensions
📧 Contact: emso.dmsg@emso-eu.org
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OSO is developed collaboratively within the EMSO Data Management Service Group (DMSG) and benefits from contributions and feedback from the EMSO ERIC community.