A Repository for Formal Contexts
This work tackles a practical problem for researchers in formal concept analysis by proposing a centralized solution to improve data accessibility and linkage to analysis results, though it is incremental as it focuses on infrastructure rather than novel methods.
The paper addresses the lack of a centralized repository for formal concept analysis (FCA) data sets, which are widely used but distributed in ways that hinder sustainable research development, by analyzing the current state, presenting requirements, and highlighting challenges for creating such a repository.
Data is always at the center of the theoretical development and investigation of the applicability of formal concept analysis. It is therefore not surprising that a large number of data sets are repeatedly used in scholarly articles and software tools, acting as de facto standard data sets. However, the distribution of the data sets poses a problem for the sustainable development of the research field. There is a lack of a central location that provides and describes FCA data sets and links them to already known analysis results. This article analyses the current state of the dissemination of FCA data sets, presents the requirements for a central FCA repository, and highlights the challenges for this.