Ce qui est écrit et ce qui est parlé. CRMtex for modelling textual entities on the Semantic Web

Submitted by Achille Felicetti on 06/05/2020 - 01:51

Tracking #: 2509-3723

Authors: 
Achille Felicetti
Francesca Murano

Responsible editor: 
Special Issue Cultural Heritage 2019

Submission type: 
Full Paper
Abstract: 
This paper presents the new developments of CRMtex, an ontological model based on CIDOC CRM, created to describe ancient texts and other semiotic features appearing on inscriptions, papyri, manuscripts and other similar supports. The model is also designed to describe in a formal way the phenomena related to the production, use, conservation, study and interpretation of textual entities. CRMtex was originally intended to detect the close relationship linking ancient texts with the physical objects on which they are supported, the tools and writing systems used for their production, and the various scientific investigations and readings carried out on the text by modern scholars. It eventually evolved to provide researchers with the fundamental concepts for the correct and complete rendering of textual objects, the events representing their history and the cultural and social environments in and for which they were created. The full compatibility of CRMtex with the CIDOC CRM ontology and its extensions ensures persistent interoperability of data encoded by means of its entities with other semantic information produced in cultural heritage and digital humanities. The new entities presented in this paper deal more closely with textual and intertextual structures and try to deepen the close relationships existing between fragments of text or sequences of signs and the underlying meaning they were originally intended to convey.
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Ce qui est écrit et ce qui est parlé. CRMtex for modelling textual entities on the Semantic Web
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Decision/Status: 
Accept

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Review #1
By Jouni Tuominen submitted on 07/Sep/2020
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

This manuscript was submitted as 'full paper' and should be reviewed along the usual dimensions for research contributions which include (1) originality, (2) significance of the results, and (3) quality of writing.

The paper presents the latest developments of CRMtex, CIDOC CRM's extension for modeling ancient texts and events related to them, such as their production, study, and interpretation. The work reported is incremental in relation to authors' previous articles of CRMtex (referenced as [9] and [10] in the paper). The work on CRMtex is still in progress, as the model is being actively developed. CRMtex is an important contribution in the field of cultural heritage, enabling interoperability of epigraphic contents and other, accompanying sources of information.

Compared to the previous version of the paper: the authors have made improvements on the paper, extending it on sections that needed further discussion. The comments I made in my previous review have been addressed sufficiently. The quality of the writing is good.

Minor remark:

Page 11: "The TX8 Glyph class" -> "The TX9 Glyph class"

Review #2
By Antonis Bikakis submitted on 11/Sep/2020
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

The paper presents CRMtex, an ontology for modelling texts, giving more emphasis to its more recent extension. It describes the design rationale of the ontology, its classes and properties and their relations to elements of CIDOC-CRM, some examples of its use and its relation to other similar data models such as EpiDoc.

As demonstrated with examples, the proposed ontology is able to model texts as physical and as linguistic entities but also activities and procedures related to them such as their production, their transcription and their decoding. Built as an extension of CIDOC-CRM, CRMtex achieves its aim of being an interoperable data model, which can be used for different types of texts and for different purposes.

The paper is very well written. All design choices are well justified and clearly explained. The meaning and role of each ontology element are clearly described and demonstrated with examples. And the differences and relations of CRMtex with other related data models are well explained. The paper also refers to some well-known projects that have used the ontology, which is evidence of its significance.

Overall, I believe that the paper would be a very good contribution to this special issue and I recommend its acceptance without further changes.

Review #3
Anonymous submitted on 06/Oct/2020
Suggestion:
Accept
Review Comment:

This manuscript was submitted as 'full paper' and should be reviewed along the usual dimensions for research contributions which include (1) originality, (2) significance of the results, and (3) quality of writing.