{ "model": { "rank": 5525, "code": "thing-biology", "model_id": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "purpose": "the science that studies living organisms", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/biology/", "tier": 2, "score": 66, "payload": { "layer": "wordnet", "aliases": [ "biological science", "anatomy", "general anatomy", "clinical anatomy", "applied anatomy", "comparative anatomy", "dental anatomy", "developmental anatomy", "functional anatomy", "physiological anatomy", "morphophysiology", "gross anatomy", "macroscopic anatomy", "microscopic anatomy", "neuroanatomy", "osteology", "regional anatomy", "topographic anatomy", "topology", "biogeography", "botany", "phytology", "mycology", "pomology", "cryobiology", "cryonics", "cytology", "cytogenetics", "ecology", "bionomics", "environmental science", "embryology", "exobiology", "space biology", "astrobiology", "forestry", "silviculture", "entomology", "bugology", "lepidopterology" ], "aliasCount": 88, "merged": 66, "knownIn": 0, "facets": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "not-applicable", "scale": "not-applicable", "affordances": [ "readable" ] }, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "noun.cognition", "senseRank": 0, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "oewn:2024", "synset": "oewn-06047178-n", "ili": "i68494", "license": "CC BY 4.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-09T22:33:31Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 21.3, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0884d-198e-7893-86cc-0f47f4836ae8\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: biology\nSense to describe: the science that studies living organisms\nDomain code: INF.KNW\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 1001 things:", "usd": 0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 62.9, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a0884d-1983-7502-8e0a-cdc6fcbe033d\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: biology\nRegistry id: vr.tr.biology\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.KNW\nRegistry definition: the science that studies living organisms\nNames folded into thi" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-BIOLOGY", "registryId": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/biology/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "purpose": "Enable an agent to recognise biology as a field of knowledge, assess the scope and evidential standing of its claims, and identify appropriate methods and constraints for further inquiry.", "definition": "Biology is the natural science that studies living organisms and living systems, including their structure, function, development, heredity, evolution, and interactions with one another and their environments.", "scope_statement": "This model owns biology as the scientific discipline studying living organisms, their processes, diversity, evolutionary histories and interactions, including its methods, internal organisation and convention-dependent boundaries.", "in_scope": [ "Biological subject matter across molecular, cellular, organismal, population and ecosystem scales", "Explanatory frameworks concerning heredity, evolution, development, biological function and organism-environment interactions", "Observational, experimental, comparative and computational approaches to biological inquiry", "Subdiscipline relationships and explicitly named conventions for disciplinary classification", "Institutional markers and standards used to recognise and evaluate biological research" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Individual organisms, populations and ecosystems as entities with their own states", "Specific diseases, clinical diagnoses and treatment decisions", "Chemical substances and reactions considered independently of their biological roles", "Individual researchers, professional roles, societies and universities as social entities", "Individual publications, datasets, specimens and laboratory instruments as separately managed objects" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The entry denotes a scientific discipline; a living specimen or a collection of organisms is an object studied by biology rather than an instance of the discipline.", "Inquiry qualifies through a biological question about living systems or their histories; using a microscope, sequencing instrument or statistical model alone does not establish that an activity is biology.", "Biological explanations may address mechanisms, development, evolutionary history or ecological relationships; clinical usefulness is not required.", "Overlap with chemistry, medicine, agriculture and environmental science must be represented through the question being studied and a named classification convention rather than an assumed exclusive boundary.", "Biology organises testable inquiry and revisable explanations; a text discussing life does not qualify solely because it uses biological vocabulary." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Level of biological organisation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Molecular; cellular; tissue or organ; organismal; population; community; ecosystem; cross-scale", "why_it_matters": "Determines the relevant units of observation and exposes unsupported transfers between scales." }, { "name": "Biological subject coverage", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Links to studied taxa, lineages, biological systems and environmental contexts", "why_it_matters": "Shows whether a claim concerns a narrow study system or a broader biological pattern." }, { "name": "Explanatory orientation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Mechanistic; developmental; evolutionary; ecological; descriptive or classificatory; combined", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes complementary questions that can otherwise be mistaken for competing answers." }, { "name": "Evidence approach", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Observation; controlled experiment; comparative analysis; historical inference; mathematical modelling; computational analysis; synthesis", "why_it_matters": "Connects a claim to the kind of evidence capable of supporting it." }, { "name": "Disciplinary placement", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Subdiscipline and neighbouring-field links qualified by classification authority, edition and scope", "why_it_matters": "Makes institutional and bibliographic boundaries explicit without treating them as universal." }, { "name": "Claim assessment state", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Unassessed; supported within stated conditions; contested; evidence-limited; superseded, each qualified by review date and evidence", "why_it_matters": "Allows assessment of particular claims without assigning a single maturity score to all of biology." }, { "name": "Research action constraints", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Links to applicable ethics review, biosafety assessment, collection permissions and data-use conditions", "why_it_matters": "Identifies the conditions governing a proposed biological investigation." } ], "affordances": [ "Classify a biological question by subject, scale, explanatory orientation and subdiscipline.", "Separate a claim about living systems from its specimens, datasets, publications and institutional owners.", "Match a biological question to suitable study systems, methods and evidence requirements.", "Assess whether a result can transfer across organisms, environments or levels of organisation.", "Identify competing explanations, unresolved boundaries and evidence needed to distinguish them.", "Determine which permissions and reviews must be checked before a proposed investigation proceeds." ] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "living-systems-and-scope", "name": "Living systems and scope", "description": "Records what biology studies and how its subject matter extends across biological scales and boundary cases.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish the discipline from living entities and identify when a question concerns a biological system.", "layers": [ { "id": "organisms-and-boundary-cases", "name": "Organisms and boundary cases", "description": "Locates organisms and disputed or derivative biological entities within the stated scope.", "findings": [ { "id": "biological-subject-inclusion", "name": "Biological subject inclusion", "description": "Record why a subject belongs to biological inquiry without requiring every studied entity to count independently as living.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which organisms, life processes or evolutionary relationships make this subject a biological research object?", "kind": "definition", "id": "biological-subject-inclusion-q01" }, { "text": "How does the adopted scope treat viruses, acellular replicators, extinct organisms and synthetic biological systems?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "biological-subject-inclusion-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "organisation-and-scale", "name": "Organisation and scale", "description": "Relates molecular and cellular processes to organisms, populations and ecological systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "scale-specific-subject", "name": "Scale-specific subject", "description": "Record the level at which a question is posed and the relationships connecting it to other biological levels.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the focal unit a molecule, cell, organism, population, community or ecosystem, and how is that unit delimited?", "kind": "definition", "id": "scale-specific-subject-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence supports connecting observations at this level to outcomes at another biological level?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "scale-specific-subject-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "biological-explanation", "name": "Biological explanation", "description": "Organises the different explanatory questions asked about biological processes and patterns.", "rationale": "Biology requires agents to distinguish how a process operates from how it develops, evolved or interacts with its environment.", "layers": [ { "id": "mechanism-heredity-and-development", "name": "Mechanism, heredity and development", "description": "Connects biological outcomes to interacting processes over organismal and generational timescales.", "findings": [ { "id": "causal-process-and-context", "name": "Causal process and context", "description": "Record proposed mechanisms and the genetic, developmental and environmental conditions under which they are expected to operate.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which cellular, physiological, hereditary or developmental processes are proposed to produce the observed outcome?", "kind": "definition", "id": "causal-process-and-context-q01" }, { "text": "Which interventions or observations distinguish the proposed mechanism from correlation or a competing mechanism?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "causal-process-and-context-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "evolution-and-ecological-context", "name": "Evolution and ecological context", "description": "Addresses lineage history, population change and interactions among organisms and environments.", "findings": [ { "id": "historical-and-ecological-explanations", "name": "Historical and ecological explanations", "description": "Record whether an explanation concerns ancestry, evolutionary change or ecological interaction, keeping claims of adaptation explicit.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the explanation concern common ancestry, selection, drift, gene flow or interactions with other organisms and the environment?", "kind": "definition", "id": "historical-and-ecological-explanations-q01" }, { "text": "What comparative, historical or experimental evidence distinguishes an adaptive explanation from plausible alternatives?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "historical-and-ecological-explanations-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "biological-evidence-and-inference", "name": "Biological evidence and inference", "description": "Records how biological observations support claims and how far those claims may travel.", "rationale": "Biological variation, dependence among observations and study-system specificity can materially limit an inference.", "layers": [ { "id": "study-design-and-observation", "name": "Study design and observation", "description": "Captures sampling, biological replication, controls and the connection between an assay and its intended target.", "findings": [ { "id": "biological-observation-validity", "name": "Biological observation validity", "description": "Record what was sampled or manipulated and whether the measurements and replication support the biological inference.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the independent biological unit, and how are technical repeats distinguished from biological replicates?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "biological-observation-validity-q01" }, { "text": "How were specimen identity, assay validity, controls and relevant environmental conditions established?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "biological-observation-validity-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "variation-and-transfer", "name": "Variation and transfer", "description": "Assesses uncertainty and the reach of results across biological and environmental differences.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-of-biological-generalisation", "name": "Limits of biological generalisation", "description": "Record supported transfer conditions across taxa, genotypes, life stages, sexes, environments and experimental systems.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which biological differences and shared ancestry were accounted for when estimating the result and its uncertainty?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "limits-of-biological-generalisation-q01" }, { "text": "What additional evidence is needed before transferring this result from the studied system to another organism or natural setting?", "kind": "action", "id": "limits-of-biological-generalisation-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "disciplinary-organisation", "name": "Disciplinary organisation", "description": "Places biology within documented classifications and communities of scientific practice.", "rationale": "Biology has overlapping subfields and institutional boundaries that an agent must represent as sourced conventions.", "layers": [ { "id": "classification-and-neighbouring-fields", "name": "Classification and neighbouring fields", "description": "Records subfield relationships and qualified placements in knowledge classifications.", "findings": [ { "id": "convention-qualified-placement", "name": "Convention-qualified placement", "description": "Record biology's placement and overlaps using a named scheme rather than inventing a universal disciplinary partition.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which classification scheme and edition place biology and its subfields, and what exact labels or codes do they assign?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "convention-qualified-placement-q01" }, { "text": "Under that convention, where do biochemistry, biophysics, ecology and biomedical research overlap biology or receive separate placement?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "convention-qualified-placement-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "communities-and-reference-works", "name": "Communities and reference works", "description": "Uses institutional and scholarly records to establish how the field is recognised and taught.", "findings": [ { "id": "documented-disciplinary-markers", "name": "Documented disciplinary markers", "description": "Link relevant societies, journals, degree frameworks and defining handbooks while distinguishing these records from the discipline itself.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which society remits, journal scopes, degree frameworks or handbooks explicitly define the biological territory they cover?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "documented-disciplinary-markers-q01" }, { "text": "Do those records describe biology broadly or only a particular subfield, region or institutional tradition?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "documented-disciplinary-markers-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "responsible-biological-inquiry", "name": "Responsible biological inquiry", "description": "Connects proposed research actions to the biological materials, environments and participants they affect.", "rationale": "Choosing a scientifically useful action also requires knowing whether its biological context permits it and how its results remain traceable.", "layers": [ { "id": "intervention-and-permission", "name": "Intervention and permission", "description": "Identifies applicable review and permission requirements for biological investigation.", "findings": [ { "id": "research-action-eligibility", "name": "Research action eligibility", "description": "Record the applicable constraints for work involving organisms, human materials, biological agents or field collection.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the proposed work involve human participants or materials, regulated animal use, biological hazards, protected organisms or restricted collection sites?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "research-action-eligibility-q01" }, { "text": "Which jurisdiction-specific permissions, institutional reviews and containment conditions must be verified before the action?", "kind": "action", "id": "research-action-eligibility-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "traceability-and-reassessment", "name": "Traceability and reassessment", "description": "Maintains the evidence links needed to revisit biological interpretations.", "findings": [ { "id": "reassessable-biological-claims", "name": "Reassessable biological claims", "description": "Connect a claim to identified specimens or study systems, methods, data and analysis versions so its standing can be reassessed.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which specimen identifiers, taxonomic determinations, protocols, datasets and analysis versions support this claim?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "reassessable-biological-claims-q01" }, { "text": "What new evidence, corrected identification or failed replication would trigger revision of the claim or its scope?", "kind": "action", "id": "reassessable-biological-claims-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "This describes the scientific discipline, not an organism's biological characteristics or a collection of publications.", "The listed branches overlap and are not an exhaustive or mutually exclusive classification; biology has no single field-wide measurement or typical numerical range.", "Classification codes and nomenclatural bodies are recalled without source consultation; verify edition-specific labels and provisions before formal use." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Molecular and cellular biology", "Genetics", "Evolutionary biology", "Ecology", "Physiology", "Developmental biology" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)", "value_or_pattern": "570", "note": "Class for biology; particular biological subjects also occupy other classes." }, { "scheme": "Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)", "value_or_pattern": "57", "note": "Class for biological sciences in general." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, issued by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, governs scientific names of animals.", "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, adopted through the International Botanical Congress, governs names within those groups.", "International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes, maintained through the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, governs prokaryotic names." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Explaining organismal function, inheritance, development, and evolutionary relationships.", "Providing foundations for medicine, disease research, and drug discovery.", "Improving crops, livestock, and agricultural pest management.", "Informing conservation, ecosystem restoration, and environmental monitoring.", "Developing biotechnology, including biological production processes and genetic engineering." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Confounding, sampling bias, and pseudoreplication can undermine biological inference.", "Contamination or misidentification of organisms, specimens, or cell lines can invalidate results.", "Findings from one species or experimental setting may not generalize to others.", "Research involving organisms can entail infection, toxin exposure, or unintended environmental release.", "Human participant research, animal experimentation, and biological sample collection require applicable ethical oversight and permissions." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Universities differ in whether biology is organized as one discipline or distributed among life science departments.", "Rules for animal research, genetically modified organisms, and access to genetic resources vary by jurisdiction." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Life sciences", "difference": "Often overlaps with biology but can serve as a broader institutional umbrella encompassing biomedical and applied fields." }, { "name": "Biochemistry", "difference": "Focuses on chemical substances and reactions in living systems; it overlaps biology and chemistry." }, { "name": "Medicine", "difference": "Centers on human health and the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, whereas biology studies living systems generally." }, { "name": "Biotechnology", "difference": "Uses biological systems or components to develop products and processes, whereas biology includes inquiry without an immediate practical application." }, { "name": "Biologists", "difference": "Biologists are practitioners; biology is the discipline they practice." }, { "name": "Biological literature", "difference": "The literature records and communicates biological knowledge; it is not the discipline itself." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of biology this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which existing Vercy world models or registry entries already own biology or overlapping disciplinary concepts and should be linked instead of duplicated?", "Which authoritative definitions should anchor the treatment of viruses, synthetic systems and origins-of-life research within biology's scope?", "Which editions of bibliographic and research-field classifications should supply verified labels, codes and boundary conventions?", "Which societies, journal scope statements, degree frameworks and handbooks provide representative evidence across biology's major subfields and institutional traditions?", "How should evidence assessments remain comparable across experimental, observational and historical biology while preserving method-specific standards?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 18, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched.", "facetsInferred": false, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a biology, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "the science that studies living organisms", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: biological science, anatomy, general anatomy, clinical anatomy, applied anatomy, comparative anatomy, dental anatomy, developmental anatomy, functional anatomy, physiological anatomy, morphophysiology, gross anatomy.", "66 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a biology, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "biological science", "anatomy", "general anatomy", "clinical anatomy", "applied anatomy", "comparative anatomy", "dental anatomy", "developmental anatomy", "functional anatomy", "physiological anatomy", "morphophysiology", "gross anatomy" ] } ], "standing": "66 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one biology from another, and a biology from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a biology sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a biology from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a biology passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a biology between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a biology, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a biology is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a biology says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a biology contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a biology and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What biology studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does biology take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does biology establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where biology is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark biology as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place biology, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a biology came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a biology and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a biology is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }