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Analysis of institutional authors

García-Castro, RaúlAuthor

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June 9, 2019
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The modular SSN ontology: A joint W3C and OGC standard specifying the semantics of sensors, observations, sampling, and actuation

Publicated to: Semantic Web. 10 (1): 9-32 - 2019-01-01 10(1), DOI: 10.3233/SW-180320

Authors:

Haller, Armin; Janowicz, Krzysztof; Cox, Simon J D; Lefrancois, Maxime; Taylor, Kerry; Danh Le Phuoc; Lieberman, Joshua; Garcia-Castro, Raul; Atkinson, Rob; Stadler, Claus
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Affiliations

Australian Natl Univ, Res Sch Comp Sci, Canberra, ACT, Australia - Author
CSIRO, Land & Water, Melbourne, Vic, Australia - Author
Harvard Univ, Ctr Geog Anal, Boston, MA 02115 USA - Author
Metalinkage, Wollongong, NSW, Australia - Author
Tech Univ Berlin, Open Distributed Syst, Berlin, Germany - Author
Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Geog Dept, Santa Barbara, CA USA - Author
Univ Leipzig, Inst Informat, Leipzig, Germany - Author
Univ Lyon, MINES St Etienne, CNRS Lab Hubert Curien UMR 5516, St Etienne, France - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ontol Engn Grp, Madrid, Spain - Author
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Abstract

The joint W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) Spatial Data on the Web (SDW) Working Group developed a set of ontologies to describe sensors, actuators, samplers as well as their observations, actuation, and sampling activities. The ontologies have been published both as a W3C recommendation and as an OGC implementation standard. The set includes a lightweight core module called SOSA (Sensor, Observation, Sampler, and Actuator) available at: http://www.w3.org/ns/sosa/, and a more expressive extension module called SSN (Semantic Sensor Network) available at: http://www.w3.org/ns/ssn/. Together they describe systems of sensors and actuators, observations, the used procedures, the subjects and their properties being observed or acted upon, samples and the process of sampling, and so forth. The set of ontologies adopts a modular architecture with SOSA as a self-contained core that is extended by SSN and other modules to add expressivity and breadth. The SOSA/SSN ontologies are able to support a wide range of applications and use cases, including satellite imagery, large-scale scientific monitoring, industrial and household infrastructures, social sensing, citizen science, observation-driven ontology engineering, and the Internet of Things. In this paper we give an overview of the ontologies and discuss the rationale behind key design decisions, reporting on the differences between the new SSN ontology presented here and its predecessor [Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web 17 (2012), 25-32] developed by the W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator group (the SSN-XG). We present usage examples and describe alignment modules that foster interoperability with other ontologies.
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Keywords

ActuationActuatorInternet of thingsLinked dataObservationOntologySamplingSensorWebWeb of things

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Semantic Web due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 22/108, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Computer Science, Theory & Methods.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 5.39. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 8.79 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-12-22, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 147
  • Scopus: 217
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-12-22:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 144.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 143 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 3.
  • The number of mentions on Wikipedia: 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Australia; France; Germany; United States of America.

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Awards linked to the item

The SSN ontology was developed through the OGC/W3C Spatial Data on the Web Working Group, see https://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=75471&public=1 for the list of members. The efforts of W3C staff Phil Archer and Francois Daoust were invaluable in enabling the successful completion of the work through to publication as a W3C Recommendation and OGC Standard. The authors acknowledge partial support from NSF (award number 1540849), CSIRO (Oznome project) and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Programme H2020-MSCA-IF-2014 (SMARTER project, under Grant No. 661180).
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