Towards a Method to Conceptualize Domain Ontologies

This paper presents the suite of principles, designs criteria and verification process used in the knowledge conceptualization process of a consensuated domain ontology in the domain of chemicals. To achieve agreement between different development teams we propose the use of a common and shared conceptual model as starting point. To capture domain knowledge of a given domain and organize it in a shared and consensuated conceptual model, we recommend an approach that integrates the following intermediate representation techniques: Data Dictionary, Concepts Classification Trees, Tables of Instance Attributes, Table of Class Attributes, Table of Constants, Tables of Formulas, Attributes Classification Trees, and Tables of Instances. We also provide a set of guidelines to verify the knowledge gathered inside each intermediate representations and between intermediate representations.