This paper presents an approach to answering queries over an ontology modelled using a description logic. The ontology acts as a global schema, providing a declarative description of the concepts of the domain, the instances of which are stored in (potentially many) object-wrapped sources. Queries are expressed using terms from the rich vocabulary of the ontology, and are translated into an equivalent calculus expression, which references only the objects available in the source databases. The query is then optimized on the basis of information from the ontology and the source databases. Distinctive features of the approach include: the use of the expressive ALCQI description logic, which supports both ontology definition and query expression; the adoption of a global-as-view approach to relating the ontology to the sources; and the use of the ontology to direct semantic optimization of queries phrased over specific sources. The approach is being developed in, and is illustrated using examples from, bioinformatics.
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