Integration of databases on substance properties: Approaches and technologies

This paper discusses the Data Center project, which provides integration of the scientific electronic resources (mainly databases) that are developed and supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The integration technology has been verified within the framework of the Properties of Substances and Materials interdisciplinary theme, which is represented in many Institutes of engineering and natural-science profiles of the RAS. The possibilities of the XML language and ontological modeling are considered for the formalized description of the subject field of the properties of substances. Successful examples of work with databases on properties demonstrate that software engineering has achieved a high level and allows for the development of common exchange standards for heterogeneous resources.