An Ontological Model of an Information System
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
The relative importance of structural constraints and surface semantics in information modeling
Information Systems - Special issue: advanced information systems engineering
An ontological analysis of the relationship construct in conceptual modeling
ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS)
Understanding relationships with attributes in entity-relationship diagrams
ICIS '99 Proceedings of the 20th international conference on Information Systems
Property-Based Semantic Reconciliation of Heterogeneous Information Sources
ER '02 Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Conceptual Modeling
Should Optional Properties Be Used in Conceptual Modelling? A Theory and Three Empirical Tests
Information Systems Research
Research Commentary: Information Systems and Conceptual Modeling--A Research Agenda
Information Systems Research
Data & Knowledge Engineering - Special issue: Quality in conceptual modeling
Epistemological perspectives on ontology-based theories for conceptual modeling
Applied Ontology - Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modelling
Guideline for the definition of EMF metamodels using an Entity-Relationship approach
Information and Software Technology
The measurement of perceived ontological deficiencies of conceptual modeling grammars
Data & Knowledge Engineering
Object class or association class? testing the user effect on cardinality interpretation
ER'05 Proceedings of the 24th international conference on Perspectives in Conceptual Modeling
Epistemological perspectives on ontology-based theories for conceptual modeling
Applied Ontology - Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modelling
International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design
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Interest in evaluating conceptual modelling techniques has recently experienced a revival, in part due to widespread adoption of the Unified Modelling Language (UML). In addition, the use of ontology as a framework for evaluating conceptual modelling techniques has gained acceptance. In this paper, we consider implications of applying one aspect of the ontology of Mario Bunge to conceptual modelling. Specifically, conceptual modelling has traditionally failed to provide mechanisms to indicate that some properties of types or classes may be considered dependent on others. This paper presents a theoretical rationale, using Bunge's ontological notion of precedence, for explicitly modelling such dependence in conceptual schema diagrams. We present the design of an experimental framework to test the impact of explicitly representing precedence on the ease with which a diagram can convey domain semantics. In addition, we consider how the issue of "common sense" semantics can interfere with experimental procedures to evaluate the semantics conveyed in a diagram's structure. We offer early experimental results indicating: 1) the explicit modelling of precedence improves the ability of experimental participants to verify the existence of dependence among properties (but has no effect on the ability to verify the semantics conveyed by association cardinalities); and 2) the potential for background knowledge to interfere with the semantics conveyed by diagram structure. We conclude by discussing the need for further research on both these issues.