If you are using the ontology, please cite its IRI (https://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/bco.owl).
Please cite the original PLOS ONE paper: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089606 or the more recent book chapter: http://ebooks.iospress.nl/volumearticle/49542
Abstract
The BCO supports the interoperability of biodiversity and biodiversity-related data, including data on museum collections, environmental/metagenomic samples, and ecological surveys. A key aspect of the BCO is distinguishing among material samples (i.e. specimens), observing processes, and data about either of those entities.
The BCO covers distinctions between individuals, organisms, voucher specimens, lots, samples, the relations between these entities, and the processes governing the creation and use of "samples". Also within scope are properties including collector, location, time, storage environment, containers, institution, and collection identifiers.
A slightly outdated 12-minute overview of the BCO is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j37IH9PIeaA.
The Biological Collections Ontology (BCO) is part of the OBO Foundry library and attempts to conform to OBO Foundry Principles.