https://top.scientix.ai/onto/commons/v1#
The commons is the namespace shared by every reference graph in The Ontology Project. Cross-cutting concepts that appear in clinical research, energy, manufacturing, and any future domain (Organization, Document, Person, Audit Trail Entry, Contract, Budget, Sample, Shipment, Equipment, Action Item) live here under the topc: prefix. Domain-specific reference graphs (clinical research at top:, future CMC at topcmc:, future energy at topenergy:) import this commons context, so the same Organization or Document is the same Organization or Document across every domain.
Artifacts
Machine-readable
context.jsonld · JSON-LD @context for the commons namespace, NGSI-LD compatible
shapes.ttl · SHACL shapes in Turtle for the commons horizontals
Source of truth
top-strawman.json · Hand-written source intermediate (currently combined with clinical-trials; v0.2 will split into a standalone commons source)
Horizontals
topc:Organization
Organization
Shipped v1 ¶The legal/business entity. Sponsor and Site (clinical-trials top-levels) reference Organization for their corporate identity and roll-up structure. Cross-industry: Organizations also represent operating companies in energy (refiners, EPCs), manufacturing (parent corp, plants, contract manufacturers), and any other domain. Carries parentOrganization for explicit corporate hierarchy (J&J → Innovative Medicine, Pfizer Inc → Pfizer Ireland) and a typed identifier scheme (DUNS, ORCID, GLN, FDA FEI, EMA EUD).
Cross-walks: fhir:Organization · usdm:Organization
Key relationships: parentOrganization, hasChildOrganization, managesSite, playsSponsorRole, isLocatedIn
topc:Document
A managed document with version, type, and storage location. In clinical research, this includes TMF / eTMF / ISF documents aligned with the TMF Reference Model zones. In energy, batch records and lifecycle documents. In manufacturing, master batch records and SOPs. The horizontal carries the metadata; domain-specific document subtypes (TMF Document, Batch Record, etc.) extend it.
Cross-walks: fhir:DocumentReference · usdm:TMFDocument
Queued horizontals
Additional horizontals are scaffolded in the OOUX hierarchy and queued for spec lift as part of the v0.1 release of the clinical-research reference graph. Each will resolve at https://top.scientix.ai/onto/commons/v1#ClassName once specced.
topc:Person
An individual identified across roles (employee, investigator, monitor, contact). Distinct from Participant (the trial-bound subject identity, which is a domain-specific top-level in clinical research).
topc:Contract
A signed agreement between Organizations. Subtypes include CTA (Clinical Trial Agreement), Master Services Agreement, Data Transfer Agreement, Statement of Work.
topc:Budget
A budget at any scope: program-level, study-level, site-level, vendor-level. Carries line items and currency.
topc:Payment
A payment event tied to a Budget line item or a Contract milestone.
topc:System
A specific tenant/instance of a software platform: an eTMF (Veeva Vault, Florence Healthcare), an EDC (Medidata Rave, Veeva CDMS), a CTMS, an IRT, a safety database. Carries vendor, productName, instanceId, baseUrl, systemType. Three-layer ownership/use pattern: Organization.operatesSystem (corporate tenancy), Sponsor.operatesSystem (per-Org-per-Study operational ownership), Study.usesXSystem (per-Study use binding, split per system type).
topc:Sample
A biological or material sample collected during a Visit Activity, tracked through processing, shipment, and storage. Horizontal in the trials commons; specialty graphs (cell therapy, biobanking) may elevate Sample to top-level in their own contexts.
topc:Shipment
A logistics event moving Investigational Product, Samples, or Equipment between Sites, vendors, and storage locations. Carries cold-chain telemetry where applicable.
topc:StorageLocation
Storage Location
Queued ¶A specific physical location where Investigational Product, Samples, or Equipment are held: site pharmacy, depot, biobank freezer.
topc:Equipment
Physical equipment used during trial conduct, with an equipmentBinding enum (SITE_BOUND, VENDOR_OWNED, PARTICIPANT_LOANED) carrying the placement distinction. Site binding flows through a Relationship rather than a hierarchical placement.
topc:ActionItem
A unit of follow-up work assigned to a Person and tied to any top-level entity. Every top-level produces and assigns Action Items, which is why Action Item lives in the commons rather than under any one top-level.
topc:AuditTrailEntry
Audit Trail Entry
Queued ¶A PROV-aligned audit record capturing who-did-what-when on any entity in the graph. Foundational to the provenance-as-infrastructure thesis at the heart of TOP.
topc:RegulatoryAuthority
Regulatory Authority
Queued ¶A government body authorizing or supervising clinical trials in a jurisdiction (FDA, EMA, PMDA, NMPA, ANVISA, etc.). Sponsor.regulatoryAuthorityScope targets this horizontal for multi-jurisdictional sponsor-of-record scoping.
topc:Country
A country reference using ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes. Used by Organization.isLocatedIn and elsewhere.
Status
This namespace is at v1.0.0-strawman as of May 2026. Organization is fully specced as part of the Sponsor work; Document is minimal. The remaining horizontals lift incrementally alongside the clinical-trials top-levels that reference them. The v0.2 of the source intermediate will split the commons into a standalone source file (currently the commons horizontals are combined with clinical-trials in top-strawman.json).
