ReTAX+: A Cooperative Taxonomy Revision Tool

Abstract

ReTAX is a system that assists domain experts to accommodate a new item in an established taxonomy; it suggests a number of ways in which that can be achieved namely; modifying the new entity, the taxonomy, or both. Further, a set of refinement operators are used to guarantee the consistency of the resulting taxonomy. ReTAX+ is a system which provides the user with additional functionalities as they build a new taxonomy or reuse an existing taxonomy. Specifically, it provides functions to enable a user to add, edit or delete the values associated with class attributes; additionally, it provides functions to add a class, delete a class, merge two classes, and split a class. Again consistent with the philosophy of ReTAX, ReTAX+ offers the user, when relevant, a number of options to achieve his objectives. For example, deleting a class is a fairly radical step and various decisions need to be made about the resulting “orphaned” instances and sub-classes.