SISSVoc: A Linked Data API for access to SKOS vocabularies

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cox, Simon J.D.^{a; *} | Yu, Jonathan^a | Rankine, Terry^b

Affiliations: [a] CSIRO Land and Water, PO Box 56, Highett, Vic. 3190, Australia | [b] CSIRO Mineral Resources, PO Box 1130, Bentley WA, 6102, Australia. E-mails: simon.cox@csiro.au, jonathan.yu@csiro.au, terry.rankine@csiro.au

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author.

Abstract: The Spatial Information Services Stack Vocabulary Service (SISSVoc) is a Linked Data API for accessing published vocabularies. SISSVoc provides a RESTful interface via a set of URI patterns that are aligned with SKOS. These provide a standard web interface for any vocabulary which uses SKOS classes and properties. The SISSVoc implementation provides web pages for human users, and machine-readable resources for client applications (in RDF, JSON, and XML). SISSVoc is implemented using a Linked Data API façade over a SPARQL endpoint. This approach streamlines the configuration of content negotiation, styling, query construction and dispatching. SISSVoc is being used in a number of projects, mainly in the environmental sciences, where controlled vocabularies are used to support cross-domain and interdisciplinary interoperability. SISSVoc simplifies access to vocabularies for end users, and provides a web API to support vocabulary applications.

Keywords: Vocabulary, SKOS, API, Linked Data

DOI: 10.3233/SW-140166

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 9-24, 2016