Ontology of units of measure and related concepts

This paper describes the Ontology of units of Measure and related concepts OM, an OWL ontology of the domain of quantities and units of measure. OM supports making quantitative research data more explicit, so that the data can be integrated, verified and reproduced. The various options for modeling the domain are discussed. For example, physical quantities can be modeled either as classes, instances or properties. The design choices made are based on use cases from our own projects and general experience in the field. The use cases have been implemented as tools and web services. OM is compared with QUDT, another active effort for an OWL model in this domain. We note possibilities for integration of these efforts. We also discuss the role OWL plays in our approach.

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