Resolving Schematic Discrepancy in the Integration of Entity-Relationship Schemas

In schema integration, schematic discrepancies occur when data in one database correspond to metadata in another. We define this kind of semantic heterogeneity in general using the paradigm of context that is the meta information relating to the source, classification, property etc of entities, relationships or attribute values in entity-relationship (ER) schemas. We present algorithms to resolve schematic discrepancies by transforming metadata into entities, keeping the information and constraints of original schemas. Although focusing on the resolution of schematic discrepancies, our technique works seamlessly with existing techniques resolving other semantic heterogeneities in schema integration.