Scenarios

Definition

Identified events related to the management of concepts, that may be of interest to consumers of Taxonomy.

Description

Each new version of the Taxonomy consists of changes regarding concepts and their relations. Below, a number of such changes are accounted for. The list is not exhaustive but accounts for such scenarios that have been frequently asked about.

Deprecation

A concept attributed as deprecated signifies it as being outdated and that we advise against using it. Often such a concept is related to another concept of the same type through the replaced-by relation. This relation acts as a recommendation to use that concept instead.

Concepts that are deprecated are never removed from the database and can be retrieved from the Taxonomy-API if needed.

Note that queries to the Taxonomy does not include deprecated concepts per default. For the inclusion of such concepts, the include_deprecated parameter must be set to true when querying the API.

Replaced by

A concept with the deprecated attribute set to true may have replaced-by references associated with it.

The replaced-by reference may point to multiple other concepts of the same type as the deprecated concept. These concepts should be viewed as suggested replacements.

A note on the updated semantics of replaced by

In version 27 of the Taxonomy, released 2025-09-15, replaced-by accomodates for more than 1 reference, whereas previously, only one reference was allowed. Up until version 27, many occupation-name concepts have been deprecated, mostly due to being outdated, vague and/or too generic to be useful. See section below for examples.

Occupation-name concepts

An occupation-name concept becomes depreacted with one replaced-by reference

There are several situations that can lead to a concept becoming deprecated and replaced by a new or another already existing concept. For example, it could be that a new concept with a broader scope replaces the previous concept.

In the example below, the concept Dansare, show has been deprecated and replaced by the broader concept Dansare:

Example: deprecated with replaced-by:

graph LR;
    A --replaced-by--> B
    subgraph "new concept" 
        B(Dansare);
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concept" 
        A("Dansare, show")
        end

Through Graph-ql, you can get the concepts with the following query:

query MyQuery {
  concepts(include_deprecated: true, id: "saUi_aP6_zhU") {
    id
    preferred_label
    type
    replaced_by {
      id
      preferred_label
      type
    }
  }
}

When the labels for two or more concepts have been deemed to represent the same concept, the concepts can be merged. In the example below, Familjepedagog has been merged into one concept together with Familjebehandlare.

Example: deprecated with replaced-by:

graph LR;
    A --replaced-by--> B
    subgraph "new concept" 
        B(Familjebehandlare/Familjepedagog);
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concept" 
        A("Familepedagog")
        end

Through Graph-ql, you can get the concepts with the following query:

query MyQuery {
  concepts(include_deprecated: true, id: "TChs_6ci_gJQ") {
    id
    preferred_label
    type
    replaced_by {
      id
      preferred_label
      type
    }
  }
}

There are also cases in which multiple occupation-name concepts are deprecated and referred to the same replaced-by concept.

Example: deprecated with multiple replaced-by concepts:

graph LR;
    A --replaced-by--> B
    C --replaced-by--> B
    D --replaced-by--> B
    subgraph "new concept" 
        B(Kurator);
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concept" 
        A("Primärvårdskurator")
        C("Omsorgskurator")
        D("Sjukhuskurator")
        end

Through Graph-ql, you can get the concepts with the following query (note that replaces, used in the query below, is simply an inverse of replaced-by):

query MyQuery {
  concepts(include_deprecated: true, id: "YpRs_ybt_47a") {
    id
    preferred_label
    type
    replaces {
      id
      preferred_label
      type
    }
  }
}

Occupation-name concept is deprecated without reference

The following scenario is only valid in versions 16 and earlier.

There are cases where occupation-name concepts are marked as deprecated without being referred to another concept. Primarily, this occurs when a single concept needs to be split into two or more distinct ones. Since the replaced-by reference is restricted to only one other concept, no such reference is made when it can potentially be pointed at multiple.

Example: deprecated with no replaced-by reference:

graph TD;
    subgraph "new concepts" 
        B(Kock, storhushåll);
        C(Kock, a la carte)
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concepts" 
        A("Kock")
        end

Occupation-name concept is deprecated with multiple references

The following scenario is only valid in versions 27 and later. For previous versions, see scenario above on concept deprecation without reference.

From version 27 and onward, the replaced-by reference is no longer restricted to only one target concept. One occupation-name concept can be deprecated with a replaced-by reference to two or more occupations. There are two scenarios in which this can occur.

Occupation-name concept is split

One occupation-name concept is split into two or more, separate occupation-name concepts. See, for instance, VTS- och lotsoperatör, which has been split into VTS-operatör and Lotsoperatör. In this scenario, VTS- och lotsoperatör is deprecated with a replaced-by reference to VTS-operatör as well as Lotsoperatör.

graph TD;
    A --replaced-by--> B
    A --replaced-by--> C
    subgraph "new concepts" 
        B(VTS-operatör);
        C(Lotsoperatör)
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concept" 
        A("VTS- och lotsoperatör")
        end

Occupation-name concept is too vague

If an occupation name is assessed to bee too vague, the occupation can be flagged as deprecated with replaced-by reference to two or more occupation-name concepts. These concepts should be seen as suggested replacements for the deprecated occupation-name concept.

One such instance is Plastarbetare. In job vacancies and vocational training, "Plastarbetare" can refer to a number of different things. To avoid confusion, two new occupation-name concepts have been created representing different types of manufacturing work related to the plastics industry: Plastmaskinoperatör and Plastmaskinställare. In this case, Plastarbetare has been deprecated with a replaced-by reference to Plastmaskinoperatör as well as Plastmaskinställare. These should be viewed as suggested replacements for the deprecated concept.

graph TD;
    A --replaced-by--> B
    A --replaced-by--> C
    subgraph "new concepts" 
        B(Plastmaskinoperatör);
        C(Plastmaskinställare)
        end
    subgraph "deprecated concepts" 
        A("Plastarbetare")
        end

Occupation-name concept changes SSYK level 4 group

Each occupation-name concept is related to one (and only one) SSYK-4 group. In instances where an occupation-name concept is deemed to be related to the wrong SSYK-4 group, it can be moved to a more suitable one. In the example below, the job title Assistant University Lecturer has been moved from the SSYK-4 group Biträdande universitetslektor to Verkställande direktörer m.fl. The job title was likely mistakenly read as "principal" instead of "lecturer".

See the following query in Graph-ql:

query MyQuery {
  concepts(version: "1", include_deprecated: true, id: "dvXH_mwD_9KU") {
    id
    preferred_label
    type
    broader(type: "ssyk-level-4") {
      id
      preferred_label
      ssyk_code_2012
      type
    }
  }
}

In version 1 of the Taxonomy, the response is:

{
  "data": {
    "concepts": [
      {
        "id": "dvXH_mwD_9KU",
        "preferred_label": "Biträdande universitetslektor",
        "type": "occupation-name",
        "broader": [
          {
            "id": "3i4a_Ufc_qpp",
            "preferred_label": "Verkställande direktörer m.fl.",
            "ssyk_code_2012": "1120",
            "type": "ssyk-level-4"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Whereas versions 2 and later returns the following:

{
  "data": {
    "concepts": [
      {
        "id": "dvXH_mwD_9KU",
        "preferred_label": "Biträdande universitetslektor/Biträdande högskolelektor",
        "type": "occupation-name",
        "broader": [
          {
            "id": "cYCo_PxY_zQd",
            "preferred_label": "Universitets- och högskolelektorer",
            "ssyk_code_2012": "2312",
            "type": "ssyk-level-4"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Occupation-name concept changes its preferred-label

If a concept's preferred-label changes in such a way that it implies a change in the concept's meaning, it should instead be made deprecated with a reference to a new concept with the new preferred-label. For instance in the case of misspellings or changes of cosmetic nature, an update of a concept's preferred-label may be warranted.