As with many domains, information retrieval and knowledge management (IR/KM) in ethics suffers from the problems of semantic heterogeneity, making it difficult for providers to disseminate their
services effectively and for users to retrieve the information they need. An analysis was conducted of resources provided by two hundred or so information services within the domain of ethics as it applies
to issues in science, technology, and research in a European context. Based on this analysis, this paper proposes a) an application profile for dealing with the problem of heterogeneity originating
from differences in terminologies, domain coverage, and domain modelling, and b) a root ontology based on the application profile which can serve as a basis for extending knowledge of the domain.