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#677 specimen role
At the recent OBI meeting, we had some discussion about the differentia for specimen role, including a debate as to whether or not it is appropriate to say that a specimen role is only realized by some investigation. I had a discussion about this with a few people from the Biological Collections Ontology (we would like to use the OBI term specimen for museum specimens and other things). We felt that the act of collecting a museum specimen is in itself an investigation, in that it involves planning, study design execution, and documentation, and produces a conclusion (e.g., species X exists in location Y). What is not clear to me, is whether the logical axiom associated with specimen role is intended to mean that the specimen role is only realized by an investigation that occurs after the collecting process, or if it is sufficient to say that the investigation that is the collecting event can realize the specimen role. This is a general question that applies to any kind of specimen, not just museum specimens.
I found several trackers that were similar to this, but not exactly the same, so I started a new one. You can merge with an older one if you think it is more appropriate.
The current textual and logical definition of specimen role in OBI don't have the only realized by an investigation restriction as a result of the workshop decisions. The question still stands as to whether to add this back. It is not clear to me what is gained by adding the logical constraint but would have the cost of reasoning burden. The textual definition says "..can be realized by use of the specimen in an investigation" which does provide additional substance.
Regarding when the role is realized, I don't think the collecting process is enough but storage in a repository (museum, biobank, etc.) with documentation does seem enough extra to be a type of an investigation to realize the specimen role.
Chris - Thanks for responding so quickly. From the perspective of Darwin Core and the BCO, we would like to request that the axiom "realized only in some investigation" NOT be added back into OBI:specimen. We feel that the current textual definition of specimen role covers the main types of specimens we want to describe: museum specimens, specimens deposited into a bio-bank, and specimens that are consumed in an assay a short time after their collection.
We also support the notion -- discussed at the OBI meeting, but, as far as I know, not incorporated into the definition of specimen role or specimen creation/collection objective -- that a specimen should be stored for some period of time, however short that may be. If a material entity is consumed in an assay before any storage takes place, then I think it should be an evaluant, and not a specimen. A specimen may of course later become an evaluant.