---
_id: '67190'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: he recent surge of interest in eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has
    led to a growing focus on incorporating social insights into XAI and grounding
    explainability in social interaction. This has given rise to the concept of Social
    XAI. However, ontological modelling of the Social XAI framework remains limited.
    In particular, there is a lack of models that capture the progressivity of explanation
    processes in terms of the changes that occur. This paper introduces the Social
    XAI Ontology, a BFO-based reference ontology. The ontology models a variety of
    entities involved in the process of explanation. First, it provides a model of
    the participants in explanatory dialogues, such as artificial explainers and human
    explainees, and the roles they may take. Then, it introduces a rich set of explanatory
    moves that explainers and explainees perform. The paper further presents ontological
    accounts of four types of context that are central to real-world Social XAI projects.
    Furthermore, it provides an ontological account of different dimensions of adaptivity,
    which is considered to be an essential prerequisite for realizing Social XAI systems.
    Finally, the paper revisits two existing models of understanding in Social XAI
    by applying a recent theory of change. The paper concludes by discussing use cases
    for the Social XAI Ontology.
author:
- first_name: Meisam
  full_name: Booshehri, Meisam
  id: '93424'
  last_name: Booshehri
- first_name: Hendrik
  full_name: Buschmeier, Hendrik
  id: '76456'
  last_name: Buschmeier
  orcid: 0000-0002-9613-5713
- first_name: Philipp
  full_name: Cimiano, Philipp
  last_name: Cimiano
citation:
  ama: 'Booshehri M, Buschmeier H, Cimiano P. An Ontology of Explanation for Social
    Explainable Artificial Intelligence. In: <i>Formal Ontology in Information Systems:
    Proceedings of the 16th International Conference</i>. IOS Press; 2026:181–198.
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785">10.3233/FAIA260785</a>'
  apa: 'Booshehri, M., Buschmeier, H., &#38; Cimiano, P. (2026). An Ontology of Explanation
    for Social Explainable Artificial Intelligence. In <i>Formal Ontology in Information
    Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference</i> (pp. 181–198). IOS
    Press. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785">https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785</a>'
  bibtex: '@inbook{Booshehri_Buschmeier_Cimiano_2026, place={Amsterdam, The Netherlands},
    title={An Ontology of Explanation for Social Explainable Artificial Intelligence},
    DOI={<a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785">10.3233/FAIA260785</a>}, booktitle={Formal
    Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference},
    publisher={IOS Press}, author={Booshehri, Meisam and Buschmeier, Hendrik and Cimiano,
    Philipp}, year={2026}, pages={181–198} }'
  chicago: 'Booshehri, Meisam, Hendrik Buschmeier, and Philipp Cimiano. “An Ontology
    of Explanation for Social Explainable Artificial Intelligence.” In <i>Formal Ontology
    in Information Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference</i>,
    181–198. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785">https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785</a>.'
  ieee: 'M. Booshehri, H. Buschmeier, and P. Cimiano, “An Ontology of Explanation
    for Social Explainable Artificial Intelligence,” in <i>Formal Ontology in Information
    Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference</i>, Amsterdam, The
    Netherlands: IOS Press, 2026, pp. 181–198.'
  mla: 'Booshehri, Meisam, et al. “An Ontology of Explanation for Social Explainable
    Artificial Intelligence.” <i>Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings
    of the 16th International Conference</i>, IOS Press, 2026, pp. 181–198, doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA260785">10.3233/FAIA260785</a>.'
  short: 'M. Booshehri, H. Buschmeier, P. Cimiano, in: Formal Ontology in Information
    Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference, IOS Press, Amsterdam,
    The Netherlands, 2026, pp. 181–198.'
conference:
  end_date: 2026-09-25
  location: Vitória, ES, Brazil
  name: 16th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS
    2026)
  start_date: 2026-09-21
date_created: 2026-09-20T14:14:32Z
date_updated: 2026-09-20T14:24:27Z
ddc:
- '000'
department:
- _id: '660'
doi: 10.3233/FAIA260785
file:
- access_level: closed
  content_type: application/pdf
  creator: hbuschme
  date_created: 2026-09-20T14:19:18Z
  date_updated: 2026-09-20T14:19:18Z
  file_id: '67191'
  file_name: FAIA-429-FAIA260785.pdf
  file_size: 491846
  relation: main_file
  success: 1
file_date_updated: 2026-09-20T14:19:18Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
language:
- iso: eng
page: 181–198
place: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
project:
- _id: '2736'
  name: 'TRR 318-2 - Project A02: Monitoring the understanding of explanations'
- _id: '2746'
  name: 'TRR 318-2 - Project B01: A dialog-based approach to explaining machine-learning
    models'
publication: 'Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the 16th International
  Conference'
publication_status: published
publisher: IOS Press
quality_controlled: '1'
status: public
title: An Ontology of Explanation for Social Explainable Artificial Intelligence
type: book_chapter
user_id: '76456'
year: '2026'
...