近年來，信息和通信技術的迅猛發展，使得這些領域的研究和開發活動越來越跨學科。為了有效地利用廣泛網絡的巨大機遇，現代信息系統的設計者需要將形式語義的精確性與認知透明度的需要結合起來，因為它們包含了越來越復雜和異質的信息內容。最近對本體論的興趣爆發是這一趨勢的一個重要組成部分。諸如知識工程、信息系統建模、人工智能、形式和計算語言學、信息檢索、圖書館學和知識管理等學科的研究人員已經認識到，他們研究的堅實基礎需要在本體論中進行嚴肅的工作，被理解為一般理論。構成其各自查詢領域的實體和關系的類型。在所有這些領域，人們的注意力已經開始完全集中在信息的內容上，而不僅僅集中在表示信息內容的格式和語言上。應用本體論最廣泛地關注信息內容。正如副標題所闡明的，我們設想了兩種廣泛的基于內容的研究活動：本體分析和概念建模。前者包括使用嚴格的哲學或邏輯工具研究感興趣領域的性質和結構的任何嘗試；后者涉及我們用來模擬世界的認知和語言結構，以及我們用來生成有用計算模型的各種分析工具和方法，如格式系統方案或知識結構。應用本體論是第一本在跨學科視角下明確、專攻本體分析和概念建模的期刊。它旨在通過謹慎地避免與學科導向期刊的不必要重復，在科學期刊領域建立一個獨特的生態位。出于這個原因，將鼓勵作者使用那些不屬于其特定專業領域的人也能理解的語言，并且審查過程將為此而量身定做。例如，鼓勵理論貢獻的作者展示其理論在應用中的相關性，同時鼓勵更多技術論文的作者展示一個有根據的理論觀點的相關性。此外，該期刊還將發表論文，重點放在表達語言或算法上，這些語言或算法只能解決相關內容問題，無論是在實際應用層面還是理論理解層面。同樣，只有在本體分析和概念建模的實踐中有明確的貢獻時，它才會發布工具或實現系統的描述。應用本體論旨在成為各種主題的理論和應用研究的主要出版論壇，在研究領域暫時分組，其示例如下所示。基礎問題本體論的哲學基礎基本本體分類與關系本體論、認識論和符號學專門的本體論時間、事件和過程的本體論空間地理本體論物理與物理對象的本體論生物醫學本體論精神實體的本體論代理和行為的本體論組織本體論與社會現實信息社會本體論商業與電子商務本體論法律本體論歷史、文化和進化的本體論本體開發與本體驅動的概念建模本體開發方法論本體分析對當前建模實踐的影響最佳實踐示例和案例研究本體管理本體開發、分析和比較工具本體比較與評價本體管理、維護、版本控制本體合并、對齊和集成的方法語義網本體論與語言本體論與自然語言語義學本體論與詞匯資源本體論與術語本體學習技術及其評價本體論在自然語言系統中的作用本體論、認知、知覺概念模式、知覺不變性和本體分類心理實驗評價本體論范疇的認知充分性本體論和內容標準圖書館學知識組織博物館和文化寶庫多媒體內容產品說明流程和服務說明生物醫學和其他科學術語基于本體的創新應用程序摘要/索引完成學術來源美國計算機協會數字圖書館康明德DBLP書目服務器谷歌學者Microsoft學術搜索斯科普斯烏爾里希期刊目錄科學網：當前內容/工程科學網：期刊引文報告/科學版科學網：科學引文索引擴展（scisearch?）

In recent years, the dramatic growth of information and communication technologies has led to an increasingly interdisciplinary approach to research and development activities in these fields. To exploit the immense opportunities of widespread networks effectively, designers of modern information systems need to combine the precision of formal semantics with the needs of cognitive transparency, as they incorporate increasingly sophisticated and heterogeneous information content. The recent explosion of interest on ontologies is an important component of this trend. Researchers in disciplines such as knowledge engineering, information systems modeling, artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics, information retrieval, library science, and knowledge management have come to realize that a solid foundation for their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up their respective domains of inquiry. In all these areas, attention has started to focus squarely on the content of information, rather than on just the formats and languages used to represent that content.Applied Ontology focuses on information content in its broadest sense. As the subtitle makes clear, two broad kinds of content-based research activities are envisioned: ontological analysis and conceptual modeling. The former includes any attempt to investigate the nature and structure of a domain of interest using rigorous philosophical or logical tools; the latter concerns the cognitive and linguistic structures we use to model the world, as well as the various analysis tools and methodologies we adopt for producing useful computational models, such as information systems schemes or knowledge structures.Applied Ontology is the first journal with an explicit and exclusive focus on ontological analysis and conceptual modeling under an interdisciplinary view. It aims to establish a unique niche in the realm of scientific journals by carefully avoiding unnecessary duplication with discipline-oriented journals. For this reason, authors will be encouraged to use language that will be intelligible also to those outside their specific sector of expertise, and the review process will be tailored to this end. For example, authors of theoretical contributions will be encouraged to show the relevance of their theory for applications, while authors of more technological papers will be encouraged to show the relevance of a well-founded theoretical perspective. Moreover, the journal will publish papers focusing on representation languages or algorithms only where these address relevant content issues, whether at the level of practical application or of theoretical understanding. Similarly, it will publish descriptions of tools or implemented systems only where a contribution to the practice of ontological analysis and conceptual modeling is clearly established.Applied Ontology aims at being a major publication forum for theoretical and applied research in a variety of topics, tentatively grouped together in research areas, examples of which are indicated in the list below.Foundational issuesPhilosophical foundations of ontologyBasic ontological categories and relationsOntology, epistemology, and semioticsSpecialized ontologiesOntology of time, events and processesOntology of space and geographyOntology of physics and physical objectsOntology of biomedicineOntology of mental entitiesOntology of agents and actionsOntology of organizations and social realityOntology of the information societyOntology of business and e-commerceOntology of lawOntology of history, culture, and evolutionOntology development and ontology-driven conceptual modelingMethodologies for ontology developmentImpact of ontological analysis on current modeling practicesBest-practice examples and case studiesOntology managementTools for ontology development, analysis, and comparisonComparison and evaluation of ontologiesOntology management, maintenance, versioningMethodologies for ontology merging, alignment, and integrationSemantic WebOntology and languageOntology and natural-language semanticsOntology and lexical resourcesOntology and terminologyOntology learning techniques and their evaluationRole of ontology in natural-language systemsOntology, cognition, perceptionConceptual schemas, perceptual invariances, and ontological categorizationPsychological experiments evaluating the cognitive adequacy of ontological categoriesOntology and content standardsLibrary scienceKnowledge organizationMuseums and cultural repositoriesMultimedia contentProduct descriptionsProcess and service descriptionsBiomedical and other scientific terminologiesInnovative ontology-based applicationsAbstracted/Indexed inAcademic Source CompleteACM Digital LibraryCompendexDBLP Bibliography ServerGoogle ScholarMicrosoft Academic SearchScopusUlrich's Periodicals DirectoryWeb of Science: Current Contents/EngineeringWeb of Science: Journal Citation Reports/Science EditionWeb of Science: Science Citation Index-Expanded (SciSearch?)