National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO 24635‑1:2025.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee TS/1, Terminology.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 July 2025.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

ISO draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Language and terminology, Subcommittee SC 4, Language resource management.

A list of all parts in the ISO 24635 series can be found on the ISO website.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

Corpus annotation is a process of annotating additional information to primary data. The goal of corpus annotation projects is to achieve high quality deliverables following the annotation specification within limited resource environments.

This series gives recommendations on constructing high quality annotated corpora effectively and efficiently. The series will consist of three parts of model: core model, training model and validation model:

This document presents the basic principles including considerations of corpus annotation, procedures of corpus annotation project, project organization, work packages and tasks that can be applied to corpus annotation project regardless of the scale, complexity and duration of the corpus annotation projects.
ISO 24635‑21 presents the basic principles for training project participants and maintaining their ability to execute the annotation project tasks.
ISO 24635-32 presents the basic principles for quality control of deliverables ensuring error-free annotation aligned with the annotation specification.

Corpus annotation principles and guidelines on proper and efficient annotation have a long-established history, as discussed in References [11] and [13]. This document specifically focuses on providing guidance on managing corpus annotation projects effectively rather than prescribing specific annotation methodologies.

1 Scope

This document establishes a core model of project management for corpus annotation, to specify the work packages of project teams, required processes and deliverables.

This document presents the necessary components for issues such as coordination, human training, reusability, software, quality control, licensing and copyright. However, it does not specify a methodology to solve such issues.

This document gives guidance on what work packages and deliverables are required under the project in which workflows and processes deal with the following:

Integration and communication among work packages: This includes ensuring that all work packages are well-coordinated, particularly in terms of the adoption of broader annotation standards and integration with ontologies to enhance interoperability. Effective communication across work packages is crucial for the seamless sharing of annotated documents with other projects.
Human resource management and interrater reliability: This covers the management of human resources, focusing on training and qualification, as well as the implementation of interrater reliability practices. These practices include training, testing and the use of appropriate tools to ensure consistency across annotations.
Annotation guideline management and software utilization: This involves managing the guidelines for annotation tasks and utilizing annotation software and tools, particularly in environments leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques.
Quality control, data validation and structured documentation: This encompasses the processes for quality control and validation of annotation results, alongside the need for structured documentation and ongoing curation. This ensures that annotated documents remain accurate, relevant and usable over the long term.
Licensing, copyrights and metadata management: This focuses on documenting licences and copyrights, providing metadata to manage the sharing of resources. It is particularly important in areas with copyright restrictions or licensing concerns, ensuring that data subsets can be appropriately managed and shared.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

3.1 Terms related to corpus annotation

3.2 Terms related to project management

4 Core model

4.1 General

4.2 Project organization and role

4.3 Project management process groups for corpus annotation project

4.4 Corpus annotation project work package and process

5 Publication and archiving of the corpus annotation (optional)

Bibliography

BS ISO 24635-1:2025

Language resource management. Corpus annotation project management - Core model

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2025