Overview
ISO/IEC 11179-32:2023 - "Information technology - Metadata registries (MDR) - Part 32: Metamodel for concept system registration" specifies an extension to the ISO/IEC 11179 metadata registry (MDR) model to register concept systems. The standard defines how to record concept systems and their components (concepts, relations, assertions and constraints) so registries can represent rich semantic structures - including ontologies - in a consistent, interoperable way. It complements ISO/IEC 11179-3:2023 and includes UML class diagrams, attribute tables and worked examples.
Key topics and requirements
- Metamodel specification: formal classes and associations to represent Concept_System, Relation, Relation_Role, Assertion, Constraint_Set and related elements.
- Binary relations: a dedicated package describing binary relation types and their properties.
- Assertions and constraints: mechanisms for recording statements about concepts and relationships, and for defining constraint sets.
- Conformance: degrees of conformance, conformance by feature, registry profiles and Implementation Conformance Statements (ICS) are defined to guide interoperable implementations.
- Documentation & models: use of UML class diagrams, textual specifications and package dependency diagrams to describe the metamodel.
- Examples & mappings: informative annexes provide mappings and examples (e.g., SKOS, OWL, ORM examples, car registration model) demonstrating how common semantic notations map to the metamodel.
- Interoperability guidance: relationship and mapping rules to ISO/IEC 11179-3 (classification schemes) and guidance to consider ISO/IEC 19763-3 when ontology details are defined externally.
Applications
ISO/IEC 11179-32 is intended for organizations and tools needing to register, publish or govern semantic artifacts:
- Metadata registries and catalogues - to record concept systems, taxonomies and thesauri alongside data element metadata.
- Data governance & semantic interoperability - to harmonize terminology and enforce consistent meaning across systems.
- Ontology and knowledge-graph tooling - to expose ontologies or conceptual models in an MDR-compliant registry (note: use ISO/IEC 19763-3 if ontology details are defined elsewhere).
- Standards bodies, registries, and data architects - to enable consistent registration, discovery and reuse of concepts, relations and assertions.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 11179-3:2023 - core MDR metamodel that ISO/IEC 11179-32 extends.
- ISO/IEC 19763-3 - recommended when registering ontologies whose details live outside the MDR.
- Keywords: ISO/IEC 11179-32:2023, metadata registry (MDR), metamodel, concept system registration, ontologies, semantic interoperability, ISO metadata standards.