ROMULUS (Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes)¶
Local reference identifier:
xwkont:ref:romulusSlug:romulusEditorial status:candidateCreated:2026-07-08Modified:2026-07-08
Descriptive Metadata¶
| Field | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Title | ROMULUS (Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes) | Self-described on its own site as "a repository of foundational ontologies." |
| Creator | Zubeida Casmod Khan | Main editor/developer per the site's own attribution; originated from her PhD research. |
| Contributor | C. Maria Keet | PhD supervisor and co-author of the project's academic literature (per docs/evaluations/comparable-projects-survey.md's prior survey of the associated 2015/2016 Journal on Data Semantics article); not separately re-verified against that article in this pass. |
| Publisher | Self-hosted at thezfiles.co.za (Khan's personal site); originated from work associated with the University of Cape Town / CAIR (per prior survey findings) |
No formal institutional publisher stated on the site itself. |
| Source type | web page / online repository | An online tool with browsable taxonomies, downloadable ontology modules, and a source-code archive — not a single fixed document. |
| Version or edition | unknown | No version metadata on the site; most recent dated content found is a March 2014 source-code release announcement. |
| Identifier or URL | http://www.thezfiles.co.za/ROMULUS/ | No DOI. |
| Access date | 2026-07-08 | Re-fetched directly this session to confirm current state before creating this record. |
| Snapshot / Stable identifier | http://web.archive.org/web/20260409151758/http://www.thezfiles.co.za/ROMULUS/ (2026-04-09) | Verified retrievable via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at time of writing, per ADR-0012. |
| Rights/license | unknown | The site states no license or copyright terms anywhere on the page for its downloadable source code or ontology modules — not CC, not an OSI license, nothing. Recorded as unknown per the project's "do not guess" rule, not inferred as open merely because downloads are offered. |
| Archive mirror status | not applicable — license unknown or unverified | Per ADR-0016. |
Source Relation Notes¶
Not a source XwkOnt crosswalks against — ROMULUS is cited only as comparable prior art (README.md's "Related Prior Art" section), not as an ontology-definition source for any docs/crosswalks/concepts/*.md correspondence row.
Rights and License Notes¶
No explicit license or copyright statement found anywhere on the live site. Not inferred as open-licensed from the mere availability of downloads.
Citation and Locator Notes¶
Recommended citation: Khan, Z.C. ROMULUS: Repository of Ontologies for MULtiple USes. http://www.thezfiles.co.za/ROMULUS/.
Direct primary-source verification (2026-07-08): the live site was fetched directly (not re-derived from the prior external-tool-sourced survey in docs/evaluations/comparable-projects-survey.md). Confirms: exact self-description "a repository of foundational ontologies"; exact coverage of three foundational ontologies, stated directly on the site as "Currently there are three foundational ontologies in the repository: DOLCE, BFO and GFO"; comparison, alignment, mapping, merging, and mediation-metadata sections; a foundational-ontology-selection recommender; references to the "SUGOI" interchangeability tool; a ROMULUS-src.zip source-code download and a ROMULUS documentation PDF; most recent dated content March 26, 2014, no newer activity found. Consistent with the prior survey's already-recorded findings (comparable-projects-survey.md's 2026-07-03 verification section) — this record formalizes those findings into a proper xwkont:ref:* record per ADR-0012, as flagged outstanding in TODO.md's "Standards & Prior Art Follow-up" section.