Ontology Change Requests

BioPortal allows users to request changes or extensions to an ontology when the ontology source file is maintained in GitHub. The change request functionality is manually enabled on a per-ontology basis, and there are currently four ontologies in our repository for which change requests are enabled:

• Environment Ontology (ENVO)
• Gene Ontology (GO)
• Mondo Disease Ontology (MONDO)
• Uber Anatomy Ontology (UBERON)

Change requests are mirrored as GitHub issues in the repository where the ontology is maintained.

Supported change types

BioPortal supports several types of change requests including:

• Adding a synonym to a class
• Removing a synonym from a class
• Marking a class as obsolete
• Renaming a class
• Editing a class definition

Support for more types of changes are in the works including, adding and removing definitions, adding classes, and deleting classes to name a few.

All of the change types that BioPortal supports are taken from the Knowledge Graph Change Language, a formal model for describing ontology change operations.

Enable change requests for your ontology

If you want to enable BioPortal's change request functionality for your ontology, please post a request on the BioPortal support list. Include your ontology acronym in BioPortal, e.g., "MONDO", and the URL of the GitHub repository where your ontology is maintained, e.g., https://github.com/monarch-initiative/mondo.

Request a change

You must be logged in to request changes in BioPortal. If you don't have an account, you can create one here: https://bioportal.bioontology.org/accounts/new.

Once logged in, navigate to your ontology in BioPortal, and click on the Classes tab.