Classification

[allysonlister]

While this tag is intended to be a generic term describing the classification of objects, the current definition (EDAM) is life-sciences-specific. We may wish to refactor as our intent is more wide-reaching:

"Assign molecular sequences, structures or other biological data to a specific group or category according to qualities it shares with that group or category."

The current hierarchy is:

[allysonlister]

We agree that we need to find another class that properly describes classification in the more general sense. I will have a look at the existing curation for classification to determine if we also want to keep this term with another label that is more suited to the definition.

[allysonlister]

We currently have 52 records in FAIRsharing with Classification. It is worth noting the following about these records:

• We also have a DRAO term Taxonomic classification, so in theory any usage of Classification should not be in relation to species. In practice, we have quite a few with both of these terms, which is not incorrect, but leads me to the next point...
• Currently, Taxonomic classification is in a separate hierarchy to Classification. At first glance I thought this was incorrect, but it turns out we have Taxonomic classification as a child of organism name (definition "The full name for a group of organisms, reflecting their biological classification and (usually) conforming to a standard nomenclature."). Therefore, rather than it being the research area concerned with species classification, it is the actual taxonomic classification of an organism:
• Within the 52 records, Classification is being used in the following ways in addition to its use as taxonomic classification (concurrently with the taxonomic classification tag): classifying enzymes (ExplorEnz https://fairsharing.org/FAIRsharing.da6cny), classification in linguistics (https://fairsharing.org/bsg-s001241), drug classification (https://fairsharing.org/FAIRsharing.spjjv8), disease classification (https://fairsharing.org/FAIRsharing.85k1jm), and a number of other biological classifications (e.g. genes). So it's fair to say that it is being used generally, though mainly with the life sciences. Personally, I would like to see it with a general definition.

There are two points here:

1. Should Taxonomic classification stay where it is? I think we can probably leave it as its location fits with its meaning. If instead you'd like me to look for a suitable class that would fit as a child of Classification, please let me know.
2. Refactor Classification to one of these choices (there are a couple of other options, but I think these are the best two): http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/NCIT_C25161

The OMIT term http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OMIT_0004280, which is taken from MeSH with the definition "The systematic arrangement of entities in any field into categories classes based on common characteristics such as properties, morphology, subject matter, etc."

Of the two, I prefer the definition and the hierarchy of the OMIT term. What do you two think, @delphinedauga and @Drosophilic? Thanks!

[Drosophilic]

Hi Ally, I also prefer the OMIT term. I also think Taxonomic Classification should stay where it is.

[allysonlister]

Thanks @Drosophilic that's great! @delphinedauga what are your thoughts?

[allysonlister]

What are you changing?

Refactoring the Classification class.

Why are you suggesting this change?

The current definition does match the more generic label, nor does it match FAIRsharing's use of the term.

Mapping

Add to development/refactored-IRIs-current.txt http://edamontology.org/operation_2990|http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OMIT_0004280

Label

Recommendation: Classification

Reasoning: OMIT label, and our existing label.

IRI

Recommendation: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OMIT_0004280

Reasoning: See discussion earlier in the ticket.

Definition

The systematic arrangement of entities in any field into categories classes based on common characteristics such as properties, morphology, subject matter [Adapted from https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D002965, AL 5.8.2020]

Please note that this will have to be added via DRAO-manual.owl, as OMIT does not currently import definitions for the MeSH terms it uses.

Hierarchy

Recommendation: Child of data transformation

Reasoning: We don't currently have a mesh hierarchy in FAIRsharing and classification is a type of data transformation. It was a child of EDAM operation (which itself is a child of data transformation), so this places it in a similar location.

[allysonlister]

Work complete on this ticket.