Ontologies, schemas & standards · across every domain

See how the world’s schemas fit together.

A curated, automatically evaluated catalog of ontologies, schemas, vocabularies and data standards across the sciences, from biomedicine and earth science to chemistry, engineering and the humanities. Every entry is scored against the FAIR principles, ontology quality, maintenance and community adoption, with the exact version evaluated and full provenance.

Resources
2688
Categories
15
Adopting projects
228
Avg. score
22

Browse by domain

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Foundational & Upper OntologiesTop-level ontologies and shared relations that other domains build on and align to.39 resources + 13 from other domainsMetadata, Provenance & PublishingDescribing datasets, catalogs, provenance, people, citations and licences, on the web and in research.518 resources + 102 from other domainsLife SciencesGenes, proteins, cells, anatomy, taxonomy, investigations and bioinformatics.363 resources + 174 from other domainsHealth & ClinicalDiseases, phenotypes, clinical terminologies and healthcare data models.166 resources + 114 from other domainsNeuroscienceBrain data standards, behaviour and neuroscience metadata. See neuroschema.org for the full neuroscience catalog.51 resources + 23 from other domainsChemistry & MaterialsChemical entities, reactions, methods and materials.99 resources + 74 from other domainsEarth & EnvironmentEnvironments, earth science, geospatial data, sensors and observations.306 resources + 71 from other domainsAgriculture, Food & PlantsCrops, plants, traits, livestock and food.51 resources + 82 from other domainsPhysical Sciences, Maths & UnitsQuantities and units of measure, mathematics, statistics, physics and astronomy.54 resources + 50 from other domainsEngineering & Built EnvironmentSmart devices, buildings, the Internet of Things and industrial data.217 resources + 77 from other domainsHumanities & CultureCultural heritage, art, archives, media, music and language.131 resources + 76 from other domainsPrivacy, Security & LawData protection and GDPR, consent, contracts and licences, cybersecurity and legal knowledge.55 resources + 35 from other domainsSociety, Government & BusinessGovernment, law, economics, business, transport, tourism, people and organisations.196 resources + 98 from other domainsComputing & SoftwareSoftware, research code and data-science methods.88 resources + 70 from other domainsMultidisciplinary & GeneralVocabularies that span many fields or that registries have not assigned to a single domain.354 resources

Cross-domain fit

How domains connect

Each line joins two domains that share ontologies or schemas, either because one resource is used in both, or because a resource in one imports a resource in the other. Thicker lines mean more sharing. Foundational ontologies, units and metadata vocabularies are the bridges.

Strongest bridges

  1. BFO Basic Formal Ontology
  2. RO Relation Ontology
  3. ChEBI Chemical Entities of Biological Interest
  4. EFO Experimental Factor Ontology
  5. OWL-Time Time Ontology in OWL
  6. BAO BioAssay Ontology
  7. QUDT Quantities, Units, Dimensions, and Types Ontology
Health & Clinical ↔ Life Sciences: 378 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 264 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Life Sciences: 234 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Life Sciences: 129 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 122 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Life Sciences: 98 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Health & Clinical: 94 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Life Sciences: 81 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 68 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Health & Clinical: 67 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 53 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 52 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 51 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Health & Clinical: 50 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Life Sciences: 50 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Engineering & Built Environment: 49 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Health & Clinical: 49 sharedMetadata, Provenance & Publishing ↔ Society, Government & Business: 46 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 46 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Society, Government & Business: 40 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 40 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Society, Government & Business: 37 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Life Sciences: 37 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 35 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Neuroscience: 34 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Life Sciences: 34 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Earth & Environment: 33 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Neuroscience: 33 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 29 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 29 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Earth & Environment: 26 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Engineering & Built Environment: 25 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Foundational & Upper Ontologies: 24 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Humanities & Culture: 24 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Humanities & Culture: 23 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Metadata, Provenance & Publishing: 23 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Foundational & Upper Ontologies: 21 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Foundational & Upper Ontologies: 20 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Engineering & Built Environment: 19 sharedMetadata, Provenance & Publishing ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 19 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 18 sharedMetadata, Provenance & Publishing ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 18 sharedPrivacy, Security & Law ↔ Society, Government & Business: 17 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Health & Clinical: 16 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Engineering & Built Environment: 16 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Society, Government & Business: 16 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Humanities & Culture: 15 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 15 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Chemistry & Materials: 15 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Society, Government & Business: 14 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 14 sharedMetadata, Provenance & Publishing ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 14 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Society, Government & Business: 13 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Humanities & Culture: 12 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 11 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Health & Clinical: 11 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Earth & Environment: 11 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Humanities & Culture: 9 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 9 sharedMetadata, Provenance & Publishing ↔ Neuroscience: 8 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 8 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Foundational & Upper Ontologies: 8 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 7 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 7 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Society, Government & Business: 7 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 7 sharedLife Sciences ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 7 sharedHealth & Clinical ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 7 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Neuroscience: 7 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Humanities & Culture: 7 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Foundational & Upper Ontologies: 7 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 7 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Computing & Software: 6 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Society, Government & Business: 6 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 5 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Neuroscience: 5 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Neuroscience: 5 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 5 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 4 sharedPhysical Sciences, Maths & Units ↔ Society, Government & Business: 4 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Computing & Software: 4 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Society, Government & Business: 4 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Neuroscience: 4 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 3 sharedNeuroscience ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 3 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Neuroscience: 3 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Neuroscience: 2 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies ↔ Humanities & Culture: 2 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 2 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Society, Government & Business: 2 sharedEarth & Environment ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 2 sharedChemistry & Materials ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 2 sharedComputing & Software ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 2 sharedAgriculture, Food & Plants ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 2 sharedMultidisciplinary & General ↔ Neuroscience: 2 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Neuroscience: 2 sharedPhysical Sciences, Maths & Units ↔ Privacy, Security & Law: 1 sharedEngineering & Built Environment ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 1 sharedHumanities & Culture ↔ Multidisciplinary & General: 1 sharedMultidisciplinary & General ↔ Physical Sciences, Maths & Units: 1 sharedFoundational & Upper Ontologies: 52 resourcesFoundationalMetadata, Provenance & Publishing: 620 resourcesMetadataLife Sciences: 537 resourcesLife SciencesHealth & Clinical: 280 resourcesHealthNeuroscience: 74 resourcesNeuroscienceChemistry & Materials: 173 resourcesChemistryEarth & Environment: 377 resourcesEarthAgriculture, Food & Plants: 133 resourcesAgriculturePhysical Sciences, Maths & Units: 104 resourcesPhysical SciencesEngineering & Built Environment: 294 resourcesEngineeringHumanities & Culture: 207 resourcesHumanitiesPrivacy, Security & Law: 90 resourcesPrivacySociety, Government & Business: 294 resourcesSocietyComputing & Software: 158 resourcesComputingMultidisciplinary & General: 354 resourcesMultidisciplinary
Node size: resources used in the domain. Hover a line for the count.

Highest rated

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Ontology A96

OBIOntology for Biomedical Investigations

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) project is developing an integrated ontology for the description of biological and clinical investigations. The ontology will represent the design of an investigation, the protocols and instrumentation used, the material used, the data generated and the type analysis performed on it. Currently OBI is being built under the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO).

Life Sciences+2 domains 2026-07-27
OWLOBO FAIR 48/48 · 5 adopters
Ontology A96

UBERONUber-anatomy Ontology

A cross-species anatomy ontology covering animals, with extensive coverage of nervous system structures. It is the common anatomy backbone for many cell, expression and phenotype resources.

Life Sciences+3 domains 2026-10-01
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 47/48 · 14 adopters
Ontology A95

CLCell Ontology

The reference ontology of cell types across organisms, with a large and growing branch of neuron and glial types.

Life Sciences+2 domains 2026-06-08
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 48/48 · 9 adopters
Ontology A95

MONDOMondo Disease Ontology

A unified disease ontology that merges many disease resources, with comprehensive coverage of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Health & Clinical+2 domains 2026-10-06
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 48/48 · 6 adopters
Ontology A93

MPMammalian Phenotype Ontology

The Mammalian Phenotype Ontology (MP) classifies and organises phenotypic information related to the mouse and other mammalian species. This ontology has been applied to mouse phenotype descriptions in various databases allowing comparisons of data from diverse mammalian sources. It can facilitate in the identification of appropriate experimental disease models, and aid in the discovery of candidate disease genes and molecular signaling pathways.

Life Sciences+1 domain 2026-09-23
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 48/48 · 3 adopters
Ontology A92

DOIDHuman Disease Ontology

The Disease Ontology has been developed as a standardized ontology for human disease with the purpose of providing the biomedical community with consistent, reusable and sustainable descriptions of human disease terms, phenotype characteristics and related medical vocabulary disease concepts.

Health & Clinical+1 domain 2026-09-30
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 48/48 · 3 adopters

Recently updated

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Ontology A91

GOGene Ontology

Describes gene product functions, processes and locations, including synaptic transmission, neurotransmitter release and neuron development.

Life Sciences+3 domains 2026-07-26
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 48/48 · 6 adopters
Ontology A87

HPOHuman Phenotype Ontology

Standard vocabulary of phenotypic abnormalities in human disease, with a large nervous system abnormality branch used in rare-disease diagnostics.

Health & Clinical+2 domains 2026-09-01
OWLOBOJSON FAIR 45/48 · 2 adopters
Vocabulary E30

NeurobagelNeurobagel data model and vocabulary

An RDF vocabulary (nb:) and a JSON Schema for data dictionaries that harmonise participant-level metadata (age, sex, diagnosis, assessments, imaging modality, processing pipelines) by annotating BIDS participants.tsv columns with SNOMED CT, NCIt and NIDM terms. The resulting graphs power Neurobagel's federated search across datasets.

Neuroscience commit b5953b2
JSON SchemaJSON-LDRDF FAIR 19/48 · 0 adopters
Data standard C59

BIDSBrain Imaging Data Structure

A community standard for organising and describing neuroimaging and related data: MRI, EEG, MEG, iEEG, PET, microscopy, NIRS, motion, MRS, EMG, eye tracking, and derivatives such as atlases. Its rules are a machine-readable YAML schema, also exported as one JSON file, that renders the specification and drives the BIDS Validator. Metadata fields point to HED, Cognitive Atlas, CogPO, the Cell Ontology, NCBI Taxonomy and RRIDs.

Neuroscience+2 domains v1.11.2
YAML schemaJSONTSV FAIR 24/48 · 7 adopters
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