Provenance Context Entity (PaCE): Scalable Provenance Tracking for Scientific RDF Data

Satya S. Sahoo, Olivier Bodenreider, Pascal Hitzler, Amit Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) format is being used by a large number of scientific applications to store and disseminate their datasets. The provenance information, describing the source or lineage of the datasets, is playing an increasingly significant role in ensuring data quality, computing trust value of the datasets, and ranking query results. Current provenance tracking approaches using the RDF reification vocabulary suffer from a number of known issues, including lack of formal semantics, use of blank nodes, and application-dependent interpretation of reified RDF triples. In this paper, we introduce a new approach called Provenance Context Entity (PaCE) that uses the notion of provenance context to create provenance-aware RDF triples. We also define the formal semantics of PaCE through a simple extension of the existing RDF(S) semantics that ensures compatibility of PaCE with existing Semantic Web tools and implementations. We have implemented the PaCE approach in the Biomedical Knowledge Repository (BKR) project at the US National Library of Medicine. The evaluations demonstrate a minimum of 49% reduction in total number of provenance-specific RDF triples generated using the PaCE approach as compared to RDF reification. In addition, performance for complex queries improves by three orders of magnitude and remains comparable to the RDF reification approach for simpler provenance queries.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationScientific and Statistical Database Management - 22nd International Conference, SSDBM 2010, Proceedings
EditorsMichael Gertz, Bertram Ludäscher
PublisherSpringer Berlin Heidelberg
Pages461-470
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-642-13818-8
ISBN (Print)3642138179, 9783642138171
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event22nd International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management, SSDBM 2010 - Heidelberg, Germany
Duration: Jun 30 2010Jul 2 2010

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume6187 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference22nd International Conference on Scientific and Statistical Database Management, SSDBM 2010
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityHeidelberg
Period6/30/107/2/10

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

Keywords

  • Biomedical knowledge repository
  • Context theory
  • Provenance context entity
  • Provenir ontology
  • RDF reification

Disciplines

  • Bioinformatics
  • Communication Technology and New Media
  • Databases and Information Systems
  • OS and Networks
  • Science and Technology Studies

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