The Discourse Elements Ontology (DEO)
type: Ontology
date: 2011-05-05
creator: David Shotton
creator: Silvio Peroni
description: DEO, The Discourse Elements Ontology, is an ontology written in OWL 2 DL that provides a structured vocabulary for rhetorical elements within documents (e.g. Introduction, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Reference List, Figures, Appendix), enabling these to be described in RDF. It uses all the rhetorical block elements from the SALT Rhetorical Ontology (http://salt.semanticauthoring.org/ontologies/sro.rdfs) except 'Entities' and 'Abstract'.
comment: The Discourse Elements Ontology is an ontology for describing the major rhetorical elements of a document such as a journal article. It is a subsidiary ontology that is imported into the Document Components Ontology, itself part of SPAR, the Semantic Publishing and Referencing Ontologies. Other SPAR ontologies are described at http://purl.org/spar/.
rights: This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

has part
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
comment: A related resource that is included either physically or logically in the described resource.
inverse of: is part of
sub property of: has relation

is part of
type: ObjectProperty
type: TransitiveProperty
comment: A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
sub property of: has relation

has relation
type: ObjectProperty
type: SymmetricProperty
comment: A related resource.
sub property of: topObjectProperty

acknowledgements
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Usually part of the preface, or a separate section in its own right, often as part of the back matter, it acknowledges those, including funding agencies, who contributed to the undertaking of a research project described in a publication, or to the creation of the work in some way. In scientific articles, the acknowledgements are usually placed as a separated section immediately following the Discussion or Conclusions.

author contribution
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description of the roles played by an author in the publication.

bibliographic reference
type: Class
subclass of: reference
comment: A reference, usually contained in a footnote or a bibliographic reference list, that refer to another publication, such as a journal article, a book, a book chapter or a Web site. The inclusion of the bibliographic reference in a publication constitutes the performative act of bibliographic citation.

biography
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Information describing a person and his or her life history and contributions.

caption
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Text accompanying another item, such as a picture.

data
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A textual description of data used or produced in the work which the document describes, or the data themselves.

dataset description
type: Class
subclass of: external resource description
comment: Information describing a dataset held in an external database or repository and including a reference to it, such as a database ID or an accession number.

dedication
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Text in which the author names the person or people for whom he/she has written the document, or to whose memory it is dedicated.

discourse element
type: Class
subclass of: Thing
comment: An element of a document that carries out a rhetorical function.

epilogue
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work.

external resource description
type: Class
subclass of: Class
  intersection of: discourse element
  intersection of: Restriction
    on property: has part
    some values from: reference
comment: Information describing an external resource and including a reference to that resource.

future work
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A proposal for new investigation to be undertaken in order to continue and advance the work described in the publication.

introduction
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: An initial description which states the purpose and goals of the following writing, and, in the case of journal articles, typically includes background information on the research topic and a review of related work in the area.

legend
type: Class
subclass of: caption
comment: Informative text that explicitly explains another item, such as a figure or a table.

materials
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description in a research paper documenting the specialized materials used in the work described. This description is often combined with a description of the methods used, in a section entitled 'Methods and Materials', 'Experimental' or a related term.

methods
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description in a research paper documenting the specialized methods used in the work described. This description is often combined with a description of the materials used, in a section entitled 'Methods and Materials', 'Experimental' or a related term.

model
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description of a model used or produced by the work described in the publication.

postscript
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Text added after the signature of a letter, or sometimes after the main body of an essay or book.

problem statement
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
description: A concise description of the issues that needed to be addressed by a work described in the document.

prologue
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A piece of writing at the beginning of a work of literature or drama, usually used to set the scene or to introduce the work.

reference
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A reference to a specific part of the document, or to another publication.

related work
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: The authors' critical review of current knowledge by specific reference to others' work, both in terms of substantive findings and theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. This description is often included within the introduction section.

results
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: The report of the specific findings of an investigation, given without discussion or conclusion being drawn.

supplementary information description
type: Class
subclass of: external resource description
comment: Information describing supplementary information relating to the document, including references or links to the relevant supplementary information.

background
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: Presentation of information that is essential for understanding the situation or problem that is the subject of the publication. In a journal article, the background is usually part of the Introduction, but may be present as separated section.

conclusion
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A reflection on the preceding text, summarizing the evidence, arguments or premises presented in the document and their logical outcomes. Conclusions are a fundamental feature in academic research publications, and may be included in the Discussion section.

contribution
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description of the part that this publication plays in the overall field.

discussion
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: An interpretation and discussion of the results obtained and an analysis of their significance, in support of conclusions. These conclusions may be part of this discussion or may be included in a separate section of the document.

evaluation
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A consideration of the value, meaning and significance of the results obtained.

motivation
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A description of the justification for undertaking the work described in the publication.

scenario
type: Class
subclass of: discourse element
comment: A presentation of a use case or test, based on a real or hypothetical situation, used to help someone think through a complex problem or system.