Beware of the hierarchy — An analysis of ontology evolution and the materialisation impact for biomedical ontologies

Ontologies are becoming a key component of numerous applications and research fields. But knowledge captured within ontologies is not static. Some ontology updates potentially have wide ranging impact; others only affect very localised parts the their applications. Investigating impact evolution gives us insight into editing behaviour but also signals engineers users how affecting other However, such in its infancy. Hence, we need to investigate itself on simplest applications: materialisation. In this work, define measures that capture effect changes future, introduced work can be used aware editors about consequences changes. By introducing five different measures, which focus either change materialisation with respect size or number applied, able quantify To see these action, for nine open biomedical ontologies, most adhere EL + description logic. Our results show evolve at varying paces no statistically significant difference between could identified. We identify three types based complex applied them throughout evolution. The same investigated bringing conclusion generalised similar ontologies. Further, found materialised concept inclusion axioms experience induced by class inheritance marginally touch