Specifying alternative definitions for a given class

[nleguillarme]

I would like to specify "alternative definitions" for a given class.

What I call "alternative definition" is different from the "official definition" (for which I would use the IAO:definition annotation property). This refers instead to a definition that you can find in the literature, and which may or may not have been used to create the "official definition".

For instance, the official definition of ecocore:detritivore is "A decomposer which obtains nutrition by consuming detritus." In (Blower, 1995), detritivore is defined as "Consumer of detritus, usually implying dead vegetation; almost synonymous with saprophage.". I would like to annotate the ecocore:detritivore class with this alternative definition (and the bibliography reference). Does the appropriate annotation property exist in OMO/IAO, and if so, which one is it?

Blower, J. G. 1985. Millipedes. Synopsis of the British Fauna (New Series), No. 35. The Linnean Society of London

[mcourtot]

Hi @nleguillarme - to me alternative definition somewhat implies that the main definition is not correct or complete, which IMO could be an issue as OBO classes are 'semantically stable'. Would a comment be suitable?

Or maybe using a different label than "alternative definition" would help (and yes, I know we use "alternative label" :))?

Happy to hear others thoughts on this - I can see how the usage you describe would be useful.

[cmungall]

in uberon we include an AP for definitions from other sources - this is basically the join of skos:exactMatch and definition. Interested in doing this in a more standard way. OTOH I don't think our users get much out of these, it has been an editor convenience, could be stripped from the main release and no one would mind :-)

[alanruttenberg]

There's a need for this. Perhaps organize as normative vs non-normative definitions. Definitions serve people's understanding. If you know you have an audience with varied needs, then supplying a definition in language that will evoke the right understanding is going to benefit them. There's also the issue of terms for which there are community specific labels. In that case a minor rewrite of terms within the definition using the community preferred label may be appropriate.