Updates to the AberOWL ontology repository

Abstract

A large number of ontologies have been developed in the biological and biomedical domains, which are mostly expressed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). These ontologies form a logical foundation for our knowledge in these domains, and they are in widespread use to annotate biomedical and biological datasets. The use of the semantics provided by ontologies requires the use of automated reasoning - inferring new knowledge by evaluating the asserted axioms. AberOWL is an ontology repository which utilises an OWL 2 EL reasoner to provide semantic access to classified ontologies. Since our original presentation of the AberOWL framework, we have developed several additional tools and features which enrich its ability to integrate and explore data, make use of the semantic and inferred content of ontologies. Here we present an overview of AberOWL and the enhancements and new features which have been developed since its conception. AberOWL is freely available at http://aber-owl.net.