ABSTRACT
Objective To transform knowledge organization systems (KOS) about traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) domain into standardized ontologies, in order to achieve the publication, sharing, and fusion of TCM KOS on the Web, and to further improve the organization and management of TCM knowledge. Methods Simple knowledge organization system (SKOS), a technical specification recommended by World Wide Web Consortium, was used to transform TCM KOS into publishable ontologies on the Web. Results Traditional Chinese medicine language system was transformed into an SKOS ontology, which was stored into a knowledge base that could support SPARQL (standard query language of the Semantic Web) query access, and provide concept, terminology, and knowledge services for Semantic Web applications, such as semantic wiki and semantic search via Web service interfaces. Conclusion This research preliminarily verifies the applicability of SKOS in TCM domain, and exemplifies the process of transforming TCM KOS into SKOS ontologies.