Ontology mutation testing

Mutation testing is a well-known testing technique which combines error injection and unit testing. Mutation testing is an approach that tests the efficiency of the test suite, but in doing so it also allows to achieve a better understanding of the System Under Test (SUT). This work extends mutation testing techniques to ontologies expressed in the OWL language. Mutation operators on OWL ontologies change the semantics of the ontology, regardless of the syntax in which it is expressed. Mutation testing can assist the designer in the identification of potential flaws and in the maintenance of the ontology.