Normalized conversion (SKOS) of interoperable knowledge organization systems on the Web

This paper examines exhaustively the scientific literature about skosification processes of vocabularies and knowledge organization systems (KOS). Forty nine documents that describe and detail transformation of 59 conventional controlled vocabularies or KOS to Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) were analyzed. The key points for the analysis of vocabulary transformation methodologies in SKOS for the Web were identified, and studies were compared to determine the most recommendable approximations and parameters, for conversion processes of vocabularies were each time more frequent and necessary in semantic web and linked data (LD) environments. Results indicated that the majority of transformed SOCs are thesauri, that most formats were text or bibliographic records, that the most common objective in the change to SKOS was improvement of interoperability of the vocabularies and that the conversion processes could be grouped by three forms: scripts made in different languages; XSL transformations, and mapping languages. It was concluded that SKOS is considered by the authors as a good option for improving the interoperability of controlled vocabularies.