ISO/IEC 21838-1:2021 specifies required characteristics of a domain-neutral top-level ontology (TLO) that can be used in tandem with domain ontologies at lower levels to support data exchange, retrieval, discovery, integration and analysis.
If an ontology is to provide the overarching ontology content that will promote interoperability of domain ontologies and thereby support the design and use of purpose-built ontology suites, then it needs to satisfy certain requirements. This document specifies these requirements. It also supports a variety of other goals related to the achievement of semantic interoperability, for example, as concerns legacy ontologies developed using heterogeneous upper-level categories, where a coherently designed TLO can provide a target for coordinated re-engineering.
