Skip to content

Update fp-012-naming-conventions.md to standardize format (in progress) #2855

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
nataled merged 2 commits into from
Feb 24, 2026
Merged

Update fp-012-naming-conventions.md to standardize format (in progress) #2855

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
353592d
Update fp-012-naming-conventions.md to standardize format (in progress)
nataled Feb 24, 2026
b0ed1ab
Merge branch 'master' into nataled-patch-1-1
nataled Feb 24, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
39 changes: 35 additions & 4 deletions principles/fp-012-naming-conventions.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -8,8 +8,19 @@ title: Naming Conventions (principle 12)

The content of this page is scheduled to be reviewed. Improved wording will be posted as it becomes available.

## Details
GO TO: [Recommendations/Requirements](#recommendations-and-requirements) | [Implementation](#implementation) | [Examples/Counter‑Examples](#examples) | [Criteria for Review](#criteria-for-review) | [Feedback/Discussion](#feedback-and-discussion)

## Summary

The names (primary labels) for elements (classes, properties, etc.) in an ontology must be intelligible to scientists and amenable to natural language processing. Each primary label SHOULD be unique among OBO Library ontologies, and MUST be unique within its own ontology.

## Purpose

Text to be added.

## Recommendations and Requirements

Text to be added.
For full details, see this paper: <http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/10/125>

Briefly, some important things to remember:
Expand All @@ -20,13 +31,33 @@ Briefly, some important things to remember:
- avoid extra spaces between words, or at the beginning or end of the term label
- spell out abbreviations. Abbreviations can be included as a separate property.
- make the primary labels to be as unambiguous as possible. Remember, your ontology may be used in a different context than that for which it was originally intended. Remember also of course that the label should be unambiguous without looking at parent terms
- labels should be unique within an ontology
- labels MUST be unique within an ontology
- use the IAO property 'obo foundry unique label' [http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_0000589](http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_0000589) to declare a pan-OBO unique label if required

[This check is automatically validated.](checks/fp_012)
## Implementation

Text to be added.

## Examples

## Counter-Examples
Text to be added.

## Counter Examples

Text to be added.

## Criteria for Review

Text to be added.

[This check is automatically validated.](checks/fp_012)

## Feedback and Discussion

<!-- rev. To suggest revisions or begin a discussion pertaining to this principle, please [create an issue on GitHub](https://github.com/OBOFoundry/OBOFoundry.github.io/issues/new?labels=attn%3A+Editorial+WG,principles&title=Principle+%2314+%22Guidelines).

rev. To suggest revisions or begin a discussion pertaining to the automated validation of this principle, please [create an issue on GitHub](https://github.com/OBOFoundry/OBOFoundry.github.io/issues/new?labels=attn%3A+Technical+WG,automated+validation+of+principles&title=Principle+%2314+%22Guidelines).

rev. See also [this discussion](https://github.com/OBOFoundry/OBOFoundry.github.io/issues/????) ??? by the OBO Foundry Operations Committee. -->

<Category:Principles> <Category:Accepted>