Engineering the scientific corpus: routine semantic work in (re)constructing a biological ontology
Wes Sharrock
Dave Randall
Christian Greiffenhagen
2134/14192
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Engineering_the_scientific_corpus_routine_semantic_work_in_re_constructing_a_biological_ontology/9474923
In face of the burgeoning interest in
‘ontology’ in science studies, Michael
Lynch (2008) called for a move toward
‘ontography’, to talking about
ontologies by way of studies in which
ontologies (or at least, an ontology) are
of demonstrable relevance to the
doings of those being studied.
This paper provides an ontography, or
some part of one, in that it reports on
work in ontology development being
done by a group of researchers in
bioinformatics, drawing its examples
largely from a workshop in which
some members of that group were
participant and which was organised
by a research network to which they
belonged. Methodologies for building
‘good’ ontologies were part of the
interests of this wider research group
and were a motivation for the work
undertaken. What is evident from our
study is the fact that methods to be
applied, avenues to be explored and
even fundamental purposes were all in
the event ‘up for grabs’ and formed a
closely interlinked and mutually
explicating part of the ‘logic in
practice’ deployed.
We will show how this research work
was undertaken with reference to an
existing body of knowledge, yet
requiring distinctive courses of
‘discovering work’, concerning both
method and substantive content. How
were its results examined and reexamined
in the light of ongoing,
evolving and unanticipated
considerations? Describing how the
involved participants go about their
work is, then, ‘an ontography’ in
precisely the sense that Lynch
proposes.
2014-02-27 14:14:15
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Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified