About us

OSDG is an open source initiative that aims to integrate various existing attempts to classify research according to Sustainable Development Goals, and to make this process open, transparent and user-friendly.

We integrate existing research into a comprehensive approach that avoids the shortcomings of previous individual approaches and the duplication of research efforts.

OSDG is a partnership between PPMI, UNDP SDG AI Lab, and a growing community of researchers led by Dr. Nuria Bautista Puig.

OSDG logo

Our methodology

In our whitepaper, we present OSDG 2.0, a new iteration of the partnership’s work, which marks a significant improvement in the OSDG framework.

The paper explains the partnership behind the project, presents the methodology of OSDG 2.0, reviews key milestones and existing use cases taken up by various project partners and stakeholders.

Explore the article

Using our methodology? Cite us:

Pukelis, L., Bautista-Puig, N., Statulevičiūtė, G., Stančiauskas, V., Dikmener, G., & Akylbekova, D. (2022, November 21). OSDG 2.0: A multilingual tool for classifying text data by UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.11252

OSDG workflow

In the current OSDG workflow, the first stage uses machine learning (ML) models, trained on the data collected via OSDG Community Platform

In the second stage, OSDG uses its ontology/keyword map to verify the initial labels. keyword matching helps to locate evidence that a given text is related to that particular SDG.

For each SDG label to be assigned, both the ML and ontology approaches must be in agreement.

OSDG in reasearch

The OSDG team curates an API, which allows to automatically assign SDG labels to both text snippets and documents. API access is offered free of charge to scholars, conducting research that would be made available to the public in the form of a journal publication, conference paper, etc.

See a few examples below, and if you’re planning on conducting research that would benefit from classifying content to SDGs, contact us for free access.

Applications of OSDG methodology

A methodology for linking the Energy- related Policies of the E uropean Green Deal to the 17 SDGs using M achine Learning

Phoebe Koundouri, Nicolaos Theodossiou, Charalampos Stavridis, Stathis Devves, Angelos Plataniotis

Contribution of Social Psychology Research to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Flor Sánchez, Daniela De Filippo, Amalio Blanco, Marí a Luisa Lascurain

Assessing the I ntegration of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in a University General Education Curriculum

Chi Un Lei, Chun Yin Cham, X inyi Liang, X ue Qian, X iaodong Hu

Does your academic work use OSDG methodology? Contact us to be featured.

References and inspiration

We maintain an up-to-date list of data sources that are used to build the ontology as well as copies of the input datasets, processing scripts and the resulting combined ontology in the project GitHub repository .The ontology of terms used in the OSDG tool is derived from the following data sources:

  1. SDG Ontology compiled by Dr Nuria B. Puig and E. Mauleon
  2. FP-4-SD Research Project
  3. Linked SGS
  4. SDG Pathfinder
  1. SDGIO Project
  2. Keywords from the documents of the European Commission PPMI (Skrynik & Stanciauskas 2020 forthcoming)
  3. Sinha, A., Shen, Z., Song, Y., Ma, H., Eide, D., Hsu, B.-J. & Wang, K. (2015). An Overview of Microsoft Academic Service (MAS) and Applications. Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 243-246), Republic and Canton of Geneva, Switzerland: International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee. ISBN: 978-1-4503-3473-0. doi: 10.1145/2740908.2742839
  4. Wang, K., Shen, Z., Huang, C., Wu, C., Eide, D., Dong, Y., Qian, J., Kanakia, A., Chen, A.C., & Rogahn, R. (2019). A Review of Microsoft Academic Services for Science of Science Studies. Frontiers in Big Data, 2. doi: 10.3389/FDATA.2019.00045
  5. Bautista-Puig, N. & Mauleón, E. (2019). Unveiling the path towards sustainability: is there a research interest on sustainable goals? In the 17th International Conference on Scientometrics & Informetrics (ISSI 2019), Rome (Italy), Volume II, ISBN 978-88-3381-118-5, pp.2770-2771.
  6. Buttigieg, P. L., McGlade, J. & Coppens, L., United Nations Environment Programme (2015). Clarifying terms in the SDGs: representing the meaning behind the terminology, [Miscellaneous]
  7. Sinha, A., Shen, Z., Song, Y., Ma, H., Eide, D., Hsu, B.-J. & Wang, K. (2015). An Overview

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