Challenges in ontology alignment and solution to the contradictory evidence problem

Abstract

This paper introduces the main challenges when performing ontology mapping. These challenges vary from representational issues to conflicting information. For the latest category of challenges, namely conflicting information, we have designed a method to deal with the uncertainty on mappings. Then, our main contribution is the design and development of novel trust assessment formalism for handling contradicting evidence in the context of ontology mapping. The novelty of our proposed solution relays in the incorporation of the fuzzy voting model to the Dempster-Shafer theory. Finally, we present a case study where we show how our approach improves the ontology mapping problem. © Springer-Verlag 2013.