Editing of NCI Thesaurus 15.02d was completed on February 23rd, 2015.  Version 15.02d
was February's fourth build in our development cycle.

This directory contains files:

	ReadMe.txt			This file
	Thesaurus_15.02d.FLAT.zip	The NCI Thesaurus 15.02d in flat file format
	Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL.zip	The NCI Thesaurus 15.02d in OWL
	Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL-byName.zip	The NCI Thesaurus 15.02d in OWL byName format
	ThesaurusInf_15.02d.OWL.zip	The NCI Thesaurus 15.02d in Inferred OWL
	Thesaurus_15.02d.LexGrid.zip	The NCI Thesaurus 15.02d in LexGrid 5.1 XML
	

The zip files unpack the following files:

	Thesaurus_15.02d.FLAT.zip	Thesaurus.txt
	Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL.zip	Thesaurus.owl
	Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL-byName.zip	Thesaurus-byName.owl
	ThesaurusInf_15.02d.OWL.zip	ThesaurusInferred.owl
	Thesaurus_15.02d.LexGrid.zip	Thesaurus.xml

In the first two formats below, the relations are as stated by the editors, no inferred 
relations are specified.

The Thesaurus_15.02d.txt flat file is in tab-delimited format.  Included in this format
are all the terms associated with NCI Thesaurus concepts (names and synonyms), a text 
definition of the concept (if one is present), and stated parent-child relations, sufficient 
to reconstruct the hierarchy.  The fields
are:

	code <tab> concept name <tab> parents <tab> synonyms <tab> definition

The "parents" field contains the concept name(s) of the superconcept(s).
If a "parents" or "synonyms" field contains multiple entries, these are pipe-delimited.  
For root concepts without "parents", this field contains the string "root_node".  The 
first entry in the "synonyms" field is the preferred name of the concept.  If no preferred 
name has been stated for the concept, this field contains the concept name.  The "definition" 
field contains only one definition if more than one definition is associated with the concept; 
not all concepts contain definitions.

The Thesaurus.owl file packaged in Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL.zip
(asserted OWL byCode) contains the entire terminology expressed in the
Web Ontology Language (OWL), and the rdf:about (rdf:ID) utilizes semantically
meaningless identifiers, e.g. "C123456", which is the value of the "code"
property found in the asserted "byName" file.  Relations are as stated by the
editors; no inferred relations are specified.  Annotations of use only to the
EVS (for example, editor's notes) are absent in the released terminology.
The rdf:about of annotation and object properties are also replaced with
their corresponding codes.

The Thesaurus-byName.owl file packaged in Thesaurus_15.02d.OWL-byName.zip (asserted OWL byName) contains the
entire terminology expressed in the OWL web ontology language (http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/),
and the rdf:about (rdf:ID) utilizes semantically meaningful identifiers, e.g. "Gene".
Relations are as stated by the editors; no inferred relations are specified.
Annotations of use only to the EVS (for example, editor's notes) are absent in the released terminology.

The unzipped Thesaurus.owl is available directly at http://ncicb.nci.nih.gov/xml/owl/EVS/Thesaurus.owl

The ThesaurusInferred.owl file packaged in ThesaurusInf_15.02d.OWL.zip
contains the terminology from the NCI Thesaurus but excludes retired concepts and 
includes inferred relationships. This file is created for import into the UMLS 
and NCI Metathesaurus. Properties of use only to the EVS (e.g. editor notes) are 
absent in the released terminology.  It also uses semantically meaningless 
rdf:about identifiers as described above for "asserted OWL byCode".

The Thesaurus.xml file packaged in Thesaurus_15.02d.LexGrid.zip
contains the entire terminology in the LexGrid XML format.  For more information 
about LexGrid XML, please see the Vocabulary Knowledge Center
(https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/LexEVS/LexGrid+Model+and+Schema).

The file nci_code_cui_map_201406.dat contains the map of NCI Thesaurus (NCIt) codes
to NCI Metathesaurus (NCIMeta) CUIs (concept unique identifier).  The format of the 
file is code <pipe> CUI <pipe>.  The CUIs are either derived from the UMLS Metathesaurus 
(CUIs that begin with "C-digit") or specific to the NCI Metathesaurus (CUIs that begin
with "CL").  This mapping file is created for each release of the NCIMeta, which is 
published on a quarterly schedule hence is not current with every release of NCIt which 
is published monthly.  Newly created Thesaurus concepts will not appear in this file
until the next release of the Metathesaurus, and newly retired Thesaurus concepts will
continue to appear until the next release of the Metathesaurus.  Archived mapping files 
may be found in the archives directory beneath the last release of Thesaurus it was 
generated from.  The current mapping file is derived from NCIt version 14.06e and
NCIMeta version 201406.

For previous releases of the NCI Thesaurus please see the archives at
ftp://ftp1.nci.nih.gov/pub/cacore/EVS/NCI_Thesaurus/archive/

For additional information, please see the Release Notes of LexEVS 5.1.
(https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/display/EVS/LexEVS+5.1+Release+Notes)