Extensions
In a nutshell: Extensions primarily act as plug-ins for extra properties that enhance the core entities defined by the SKG-IF, and for extra entities and relations between entities capturing community-driven concepts and needs.
Introducing extensions to the SKG-IF serves as a strategic step towards addressing the evolving and diverse needs of scientific communities and projects. The concept of extensions within the SKG-IF is designed to cater to shared interests and requirements that the existing standard entities and properties may not fully meet.
By allowing for the development of extensions that enrich the core model entities of the SKG-IF, the framework can accommodate specialised use cases, specific research needs, and emerging data requirements without compromising the integrity and structure of the core framework. Extensions offer a way to further develop the framework’s capabilities without disrupting existing entities, maintaining compatibility, coherence, and interoperability across diverse datasets and knowledge graphs.
Participation guidelines
These are the engagement rules that proponents of a new SKG-IF extension should follow in order to be eligible:
- Shared Interest/Need: Extensions should address a collective interest or requirement identified within projects, communities, or domains rather than catering to individual or isolated needs. This principle ensures that extensions serve a broader purpose and contribute to the overall advancement of scientific knowledge representation.
- Non-Interference: Extensions should not interfere with or disrupt the entities and APIs already defined within the SKG-IF or other endorsed extensions. They should not serve as shortcuts for sharing information that should be placed elsewhere within the framework. By adhering to this principle, the integrity and coherence of the SKG-IF are preserved.
Scope of an extension
An SKG-IF extension can cover two distinct aspects about the data model:
- Core entity extensions: add new properties and relations that extend the set of properties and relations of core entities to address the needs of the specific case statement;
- Brand-new additions: introduce brand-new entities that reflect semantics and structure different from the core entities, i.e., no core entity can be seen as a super-entity of community entities.
Furthermore, an extension can provide additional specifications for the APIs, more specifically:
- Define a list and the relative behaviour of additional HTTP parameters to customise the behaviour of the core API resolver methods defined by the SKG-IF;
- Define brand-new, additional API methods with advanced functionalities and custom behaviours.
Applying for an extension
In order to apply for an SKG-IF extension, proponents should head to the SKG-IF extensions repository on GitHub, and open a new issue by selecting the proper template and follow the prompted instructions. For the sake of simplicity, the following link can be used.
Please note that:
- All the fields between angle brackets included in the aforementioned template must be substituted with the appropriate text.
- All the fields are mandatory unless specified otherwise.
- Requests will be evaluated by the members of the RDA WG on the SKG-IF.
- It is possible for a new proposal to have a few iterative responses before being given a final response on whether or not the proposed ontology is endorsed.
Once the extension is accepted, a new repository will be created following this Git repository template, and proponents should work on the provided codebase following the suggested folder structure and guidelines (see below).
Documenting an extension
Comprehensive online documentation for extensions is essential, stating the targeted SKG-IF version(s), the entities they enrich, any new entities introduced, and a detailed description of properties. This documentation ensures clarity, transparency, and consistency in the development and implementation of extensions.
Working on the assigned repository ensures seamless and streamlined integration of the new documentation pages with the main SKG-IF website. To trigger a recompile/redeploy of the pages, just issue a git push of your extension repository; after a short while, you will see the GitHub action firing here. Clicking on the job, you can monitor it status, steps and errors in the case the job has failed.
Provided that Jekyll could successfully compile your extension repository, the documentation will be deployed into a dedicated “minisite”; something like this.
For the starter, this is hidden and will not show in the left-hand side navigation menu of the SKG-IF website; however, once a new extension reaches the expected level of maturity, it will be listed on the left-side of the page as an endorsed extension.
Extension lifecycle
The lifecycle (i.e., development and maintenance) of an SKG-IF extension falls outside the scope of the RDA WG and the discussion around the core model. Therefore, delivering an extension can be fast-paced as long as it meets the expected degree of clearness and compliance. Once an extension is mature enough and has been adopted in the intended contexts, part of the covered aspects can be considered and cherry-picked by the WG for inclusion in the SKG-IF core model.