Semantics in Science – Pain or Gain?

Outcomes of the barcamp at the Joint Plenary NFDI4Biodiversity meets NFDI4Earth 2025

The barcamp “Semantics in Science – Pain or Gain?” explored practical challenges and opportunities related to the use of semantic technologies in scientific data management. Discussions highlighted that selecting suitable terminology services depends strongly on how the service provides terminologies’ metadata quality through their control, including well-described methods, variables, keywords, and dataset descriptions. Participants identified community adoption, frequency of use, ontology versioning, long-term maintenance, and up-to-dateness as important quality indicators when evaluating terminologies and ontologies.

A second discussion focused on semantic annotation practices. Participants emphasized the importance of interoperability, interlinking between terminologies, and understanding how widely specific ontologies are used when choosing between overlapping terms. Automated metadata enrichment was considered a valuable support mechanism, but participants agreed that human expertise remains essential, particularly for identifying appropriate vocabularies and ensuring annotation quality. The opportunity to provide feedback to ontology developers and terminology providers was also recognized as a key factor for improving semantic resources and fostering community engagement.

Overall, the barcamp demonstrated that while semantics can introduce additional complexity, they remain a critical foundation for making scientific data more discoverable, interoperable, and reusable.