The reuse of DCMI metadata terms in linked open vocabulary

Purpose This study aims to explore the reusing of Dublin core metadata initiative (DCMI) metadata terms on the linked open vocabulary (LOV) platform in the linked data environment to offer a better understanding of the reusing behaviour during the process of vocabulary construction and further explain why DC has become a popular vocabulary. Design/methodology/approach The authors selected LOV, as a typical linked data platform. The SPARQL language was used to acquire and parse data to examine the reuse types of DCMI terms, the reuse distribution of classes and properties in different semantic relation types among vocabularies, the subject and size of the reused vocabularies and the correlation between vocabulary reuse and data set reuse. Findings Results showed that DCMI metadata terms were reused by 83.7% of LOV vocabularies and became the core nodes on the vocabulary-linked network. Among the six relationships between vocabularies and the DCMI metadata terms, the metadata relationship is the most frequently used. DCMI metadata terms are reused by small- and medium-sized vocabularies and are not limited to subject domain. Originality/value This is one of the first studies focussing on the roles of DCMI metadata terms in vocabulary reusing. Furthermore, it provides a systematic view of how these DCMI terms participate in the construction of other vocabularies and in features of reused vocabularies.