Repository details
Ontology Lookup Service
Name of repository
Ontology Lookup Service
Additional name(s)
- OLS
- EMBL-EBI OLS
Repository URL
Subject(s)
Description
The Ontology Lookup Service (OLS) is a repository for biomedical ontologies that aims to provide a single point of access to the latest ontology versions. The user can browse the ontologies through the website as well as programmatically via the OLS API.
The OLS provides a web service interface to query multiple ontologies from a single location with a unified output format.The OLS can integrate any ontology available in the Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) format. The OLS is an open source project hosted on Google Code.
Contact(s)
- administrative: ols-support@ebi.ac.uk
Keyword(s)
Persistent identifier(s) of the repository
- RRID:SCR_006596
- RRID:nif-0000-10390
- other:OMICS_02275
- FAIRsharing:10.25504/FAIRsharing.Mkl9RR
Repository size
278 ontologies; 10.184.187 classes; 50.823 properties; 462.009 individuals
Repository type(s)
- disciplinary
Mission statement for designated community
Research data repository language(s)
- English
Data and/or service provider
- dataProvider
Dates
Started
2016
Institutions (2)
Country
Type(s) of responsibility
- funding
Type of institution
non-profit
Additional name(s)
- EMBL-EBI
Country
Type(s) of responsibility
- general
Type of institution
non-profit
Policies (1)
Policy name
Database access
Type of access to research data repository
open
Database licenses (1)
Database license
Data access (1)
Type of access to data
open
Data licenses (3)
Data upload (1)
Type of data upload
restricted
Data upload restriction type(s)
- registration
Data upload license (1)
Data upload license name
Persistent identifier system(s)
- none
Name of the repository software
- other
Versioning
yes
Data citation guideline
Application programming interfaces (1)
Metadata standards (1)
Metadata standard
Remarks
Remarks
OLS 4 is a complete re-write of the code and includes some significant changes to how we index and serve up ontology data.
Entry date
2013-06-21
Last update
2026-04-27
Cite this re3data.org record:
re3data.org: Ontology Lookup Service; editing status 2026-04-27; re3data.org - Registry of Research Data Repositories. https://doi.org/10.17616/R3GS9G last accessed: 2026-05-02-
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- Cite this service: re3data.org - Registry of Research Data Repositories. https://doi.org/10.17616/R3D last accessed: 2026-05-02
