Thanks Leonard and to all for the reply.

I think Antoine solution would be better, as i can specify the preferred terms between all the scientific names ("@en-x-scientific") and the preferred between the common names ("@en-x-common"). But combining Antoine solution and Stephen solution (adding a cutom attribute such as fao:type="common") would be event better.

I also like the possibility of creating relationships between terms (such as expressed with SKOS eXtension for Labels XL) but this seems to me do not solve the problem for indexing or retrieving pertinent info...

This is very important, because while indexing or retrieving document we can/should somehow establish the context for the use of the same concept: I may decide to tag a scientific document with the URI + a tag specifying it is a scientific document or tag a document about a receipt of a potato with the same URI + a tag specifying this is a "general audience" document.... I do not want to go back to term indexing, but seems to me that URI for indexing may not be enough: we may need to attach some other info...

regards Margherita

-----Original Message----- From: publ...@w3.org on behalf of Leonard Will Sent: Tue 9/30/2008 13:43 To: publ...@w3.org Cc: Subject: Re: Scientific and common names in SKOS

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 at 08:00:35, "Sini, Margherita (KCEW)" <Marg...@fao.org> wrote >The problem is that I wish not to use altLabels for scientific names, >because the concept may have actually many more others altLabels... In >fact i wish that people while indexing or searching documents, they >could use a common name OR a scientific name based in their needs (a >document on a receipt of potato or a scientific treaty on the species).

In a well-structured indexing and retrieval system with a linked thesaurus, it should be possible to retrieve documents by searching on preferred _or_ non-preferred (alt) terms. That is the reason for having altLabels. The "preferred" term is somewhat arbitrarily chosen (though for this purpose we try to choose the term most likely to be sought), to act as a label for the concept and to link it with documents being indexed.

If an indexer seeks to use an altLabel when linking a concept to a document, the system should automatically use the prefLabel in constructing the link. It may or may not tell the indexer that it has done this. (It may in fact use a concept number or other code rather than either of the labels.)

If a searcher searches with an altLabel, the system should automatically substitute the prefLabel in constructing a search statement. It may or may not tell the searcher that it has done this.

Two other issues arise:

A. If the need is to display lists of documents grouped under subject labels, optionally using either common or scientific names, then you will have to give the labels a type attribute, as has been suggested, so that the correct one can be chosen in each case. This may not be practicable, however, because:

(1) many organisms do not have common names, or have several common names, and there is often not a one-to-one relationship between common and scientific names;

(2) listing documents under individual thesaurus terms is not usually sufficient to produce a useful list. A useful classified display normally requires the pre-coordination of more than one concept (e.g. "potatoes : diseases" or "potatoes : prices") and SKOS does not yet provide for pre-coordination.

B. The "SKOS eXtension for Labels (XL)" provides at <http://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/#xl-label-relations> for the expression of relationships between different label types. We have done the same thing in the British Standard DD8723-5 data model at <http://schemas.bs8723.org/2008-06-03/DD8723-5/Model/Model.jpg> which provides for the equivalence relationship to have a "role" attribute. Example 91 given in the SKOS-XL document shows how one label can be shown to be an acronym of another, but the relationship could be specified as "common name / scientific name".

Leonard Will -- Willpower Information (Partners: Dr Leonard D Will, Sheena E Will) Information Management Consultants Tel: +44 (0)20 8372 0092 27 Calshot Way, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 7BQ, UK. Fax: +44 (0)870 051 7276 L.W...@Willpowerinfo.co.uk Shee...@Willpowerinfo.co.uk ---------------- <URL:http://www.willpowerinfo.co.uk/>