# Repairing EL Ontologies Using Weakening and Completing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00486 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.00486/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 31 Jul 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Repairing Ontologies via Axiom Weakening](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.03430/) (2017)
- [Completing and Debugging Ontologies: state of the art and challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03171/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Ontology Revision based on Pre-trained Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18378/) (2023)
- [Repairing Networks of EL_perp Ontologies using Weakening and Completing -- Extended version](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.18848/) (2024)
- [Consistency Is Not Coherence: Orientation Search for Certified Alignments Between 4D Defence Upper Ontologies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.21914/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The quality of ontologies in terms of their correctness and completeness is crucial for developing high-quality ontology-based applications. Traditional debugging techniques repair ontologies by removing unwanted axioms, but may thereby remove consequences that are correct in the domain of the ontology. In this paper we propose an interactive approach to mitigate this for EL ontologies by axiom weakening and completing. We present algorithms for weakening and completing and present the first approach for repairing that takes into account removing, weakening and completing. We show different combination strategies, discuss the influence on the final ontologies and show experimental results. We show that previous work has only considered special cases and that there is a trade-off between the amount of validation work for a domain expert and the quality of the ontology in terms of correctness and completeness.