Table 1 OQuaRE characteristics and subcharacteristics used in our method

Structural

Formal and semantic relevant ontological properties that account for: the correct use of formal properties, clarity of cognitive distinctions and appropriate use of ontology modelling primitives and principles

“formalisation”, “formal relations support”, “redundancy”, “consistency”, “tangledness”, “cohesion”

Functional Adequacy

Capability of the ontologies to be deployed fulfilling functional requirements, that is, the appropriateness for its intended purpose according to state-of-the art literature [22]

“reference ontology”, “controlled vocabulary”, “schema and value reconciliation”, “consistent search and query”, “knowledge acquisition”, “clustering and similarity”, “indexing and linking”, “results representation”, “text analysis”, “guidance and decision trees” and “knowledge reuse and inferencing”

Reliability

Capability of an ontology to maintain its level of performance under stated conditions for a given period of time

“recoverability” and “availability”

Operability

Effort needed for the ontology use. Individual assessment of such use, by a stated or implied set of users

“learnability”

Compatibility

Capability of two or more ontologies to exchange information and/or to perform their required functions while sharing a hardware/software environment

“replaceability”

Maintainability

Capability of ontologies to be modified for changes in environments, in requirements or in functional specifications

“modularity”, “reusability”, “analysability”, “changeability”, “modification stability” and “testability”

Transferability

Degree to which the ontology can be transferred from one environment (e.g., operating system) to another

“adaptability”