https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/Head https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://www.nanopub.org/nschema#hasAssertion https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://www.nanopub.org/nschema#hasProvenance https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/provenance https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://www.nanopub.org/nschema#hasPublicationInfo https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/pubinfo https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type http://www.nanopub.org/nschema#Nanopublication https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion http://id.crossref.org/issn/2041-1480 http://purl.org/dc/terms/title Journal of Biomedical Semantics https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://purl.org/dc/terms/abstract Background: In today's landscape of data management, the importance of knowledge graphs and ontologies is escalating as critical mechanisms aligned with the FAIR Guiding Principles—ensuring data and metadata are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. We discuss three challenges that may hinder the effective exploitation of the full potential of FAIR knowledge graphs. Results: We introduce "semantic units" as a conceptual solution, although currently exemplified only in a limited prototype. Semantic units structure a knowledge graph into identifiable and semantically meaningful subgraphs by adding another layer of triples on top of the conventional data layer. Semantic units and their subgraphs are represented by their own resource that instantiates a corresponding semantic unit class. We distinguish statement and compound units as basic categories of semantic units. A statement unit is the smallest, independent proposition that is semantically meaningful for a human reader. Depending on the relation of its underlying proposition, it consists of one or more triples. Organizing a knowledge graph into statement units results in a partition of the graph, with each triple belonging to exactly one statement unit. A compound unit, on the other hand, is a semantically meaningful collection of statement and compound units that form larger subgraphs. Some semantic units organize the graph into different levels of representational granularity, others orthogonally into different types of granularity trees or different frames of reference, structuring and organizing the knowledge graph into partially overlapping, partially enclosed subgraphs, each of which can be referenced by its own resource. Conclusions: Semantic units, applicable in RDF/OWL and labeled property graphs, offer support for making statements about statements and facilitate graph-alignment, subgraph-matching, knowledge graph profiling, and for management of access restrictions to sensitive data. Additionally, we argue that organizing the graph into semantic units promotes the differentiation of ontological and discursive information, and that it also supports the differentiation of multiple frames of reference within the graph. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://purl.org/dc/terms/date 2024-05-27 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://purl.org/dc/terms/isPartOf http://id.crossref.org/issn/2041-1480 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://purl.org/dc/terms/title Semantic units: organizing knowledge graphs into semantically meaningful units of representation https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://purl.org/ontology/bibo/authorList https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/author-list https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type http://purl.org/spar/fabio/Article https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-5890 http://schema.org/affiliation https://ror.org/01q3tbs38 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-5890 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Robert Hoehndorf https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-0234 http://schema.org/affiliation https://ror.org/008xxew50 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-0234 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Tobias Kuhn https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0487 http://schema.org/affiliation https://ror.org/04aj4c181 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0487 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Lars Vogt https://ror.org/008xxew50 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Department of Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands https://ror.org/01q3tbs38 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) https://ror.org/04aj4c181 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/author-list http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#_1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0487 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/author-list http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#_2 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-0234 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/author-list http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#_3 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-5890 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/provenance https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#wasAttributedTo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-5890 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#wasAttributedTo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-0234 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#wasAttributedTo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0487 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/assertion http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#wasDerivedFrom https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/pubinfo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8149-5890 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Robert Hoehndorf https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-0234 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Tobias Kuhn https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8280-0487 http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name Lars Vogt https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://purl.org/dc/terms/created 2026-02-22T17:12:15.000+01:00 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator https://w3id.org/np/RAkkUz7qBJ-BIOCHV_4WCTgHCdTyI25_bnRuw166SXjwM/DOI-bot https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://purl.org/dc/terms/license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://purl.org/nanopub/x/hasNanopubType http://purl.org/spar/fabio/ScholarlyWork https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://purl.org/nanopub/x/introduces https://doi.org/10.1186/s13326-024-00310-5 https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#label Semantic units: organizing knowledge graphs into semantically meaningful units of representation https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/sig http://purl.org/nanopub/x/hasAlgorithm RSA https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/sig http://purl.org/nanopub/x/hasPublicKey MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEArRL5MjH1KfuE89dpKsIiscF/THrJ4uSvhl0NgaC8x3TdTDrL00kCnlH+2g7PMYhaUQIGWq27TTXHAGp7ehO8yLjRNeDCc8zjUCQJqLbzay3DB51PCiz50OsMgxiZC1+e0bVdk/CAQV4oVo+VgI+awHI1bTT4Yp7pR2I67imf1PIcwczGVhn8EQwtNdWQOZ63wDgUCY+6IubHBQzjLfbYh0828UETEyIV28T7fvf5+y4A5M590InmgkLGpJbRXoL0pnCm1BtFOoxeAVqfivbxIZWPYN2Yd0cSfqwIIUYyaLFpjDrBwc4iJdOus4UQ9OYqkeZDMpU3opU8jWKDIm77jwIDAQAB https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/sig http://purl.org/nanopub/x/hasSignature hanHiUqgo/bsqD4GpJUL7Rpv1FfKhVL8hv/AW7v8H6WJnIetcIOkJhkwGjkfjnfT83VYX181wch7z/6mLdCcX+CLi8Gi22A9sK0IfpMhdx53mKpDU2eea5zWIgtEJxZTMKiPxigxPx/pJkWKT8kr3VfaQBae+woLnUbhCULHY+IYoBpSTa9JAtXmbCP0FmReaelr2k32o46orYkNxDv+aCVBtDcQpD09Ejyj23YmOZ9x8283pTASZ5VcHQaR8XL1rEYszTpMec8EmicFe+EmEQrxpJmnKRQxTVKTXToAALTVzdHTgxiFCxElHMdPhkXZToBVU+855yh5zBjsFoe1Qg== https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/sig http://purl.org/nanopub/x/hasSignatureTarget https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A https://w3id.org/np/RAA1vf_GK8NLXPv36aXQIWMda4KwSayKMDcI3XP-T090A/sig http://purl.org/nanopub/x/signedBy https://w3id.org/np/RAkkUz7qBJ-BIOCHV_4WCTgHCdTyI25_bnRuw166SXjwM/DOI-bot