Abstract
With decades of contributions and applications, conceptual modeling is very well-recognized in information systems engineering. However, the importance and relevance of conceptual modeling is less well understood in other disciplines. This paper, through an analysis of existing research and expert opinions, proposes a reference framework for conceptual modeling to help researchers and practitioners position their work in the field, facilitate discussion among researchers in the field, and help researchers and practitioners in other fields understand what the field of conceptual modeling has to offer as well as contribute to its continued, extended influence in multiple domains.
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Notes
- 1.
Because we seek to give a broad characterization of the field of conceptual modeling, we cite an unusually large and diverse number of papers. Even so, we can only cite a fraction of the high quality related work done by influential researchers.
- 2.
These questions were: Who are the developers of conceptual models? Who are the users of conceptual models? What is represented in a conceptual model? and What is the purpose of a conceptual model?.
- 3.
Interactive Session on Definitions of Conceptual Modeling, held at ER 2017.
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Acknowledgments
We express deep gratitude to colleagues who responded (often with extensive material) to our email requests for their views on questions regarding conceptual modeling. Alphabetically by first name they include: Antoni Olivé, Avi Gal, Bernhard Thalheim, Carlo Batini, Carson Woo, Chris Partridge, David Embley, Dennis McLeod, Dov Dori, Eric Yu, Giancarlo Guizzardi, Heinrich Mayr, Hui Ma, Isabelle Comyn-Wattiau, Jacky Akoka, Jean-Luc Hainaut, Jeff Parsons, Jennifer Horkoff, John Mylopoulos, Jordi Cabot, José Palazzo, Juan Trujillo, Karen Davis, Klaus-Dieter Schewe, Leah Wong, Motoshi Saeki, Nicola Guarino, Peter Scheuermann, Ramez Elmasri, Rick Snodgrass, Roger Chiang, Roland Kaschek, Ron Weber, Sal March, Samira Cherfi, Silvana Castano, Stefano Rizzi, Susan Urban, Terry Halpin, Toby Teorey, Valeria De Antonellis, Yair Wand, and Zoubida Kedad. We are also grateful to the participants in our ER 2017 interactive session.
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Delcambre, L.M.L., Liddle, S.W., Pastor, O., Storey, V.C. (2018). A Reference Framework for Conceptual Modeling. In: Trujillo, J., et al. Conceptual Modeling. ER 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11157. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00847-5_4
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