Two major associations are in the process of standardizing definitions and creating a representational framework for their industries. The International Association of STM Publishers (STM), the leading global trade association for academic and professional publishers, has set-up a working group to identify and standardize definitions and terminology in open peer review practices. Similarly, the non-profit association European Materials Modeling Council (EMMC ASBL) has announced the first pre-release of the European Materials & Modeling Ontology (EMMO).
Recognizing the need for having a Peer Review Taxonomy, STM has set up a working group. The group will develop standardized definitions, associated best practice recommendations and a full proposal of actions for broad implementation of the terminology across STM publishers.
A Peer Review Taxonomy that is used across publishers will help make the peer review process for articles and books more transparent. Additionally, the taxonomy will enable the community to assess and compare peer review practices between different journals and books. With this background, a first draft of the proposed taxonomy is expected to be shared for consultation in the summer of 2020. More information published by STM on this initiative can be found here.
In a parallel development, the EMMO 1.0.0-alpha, released by EMMC ASBL, marks a major milestone in the development of a new standard representational framework (the ontology) for applied sciences. The release consists of a top and middle-level ontology. The top-level ontology includes the fundamental axioms that constitute the philosophical foundation of the EMMO. The middle-level ontology, which includes a set of perspectives to be used for the development of more specialized domain ontologies, is also, where cross-domain ontologies are included.
The EMMO 1.0.0-alpha release has a metrology branch including the International System of Quantities and SI system, laying the foundation for a semiotic-based property system in EMMO.
Subsequent alpha releases will have chemical composition, an extension of the physical quantities set and position-based symbolic structures as middle-level developments. A test suite for checking sub-modules against the EMMO convention is also planned. EMMO 1.0.0-alpha release and further information can be accessed via the EMMO Github repository.
Please give your feedback on this article or share a similar story for publishing by clicking here.
