How to View Results¶
This guide covers exploring analysis results and provenance in OntExtract.
Overview¶
After processing documents, OntExtract provides several ways to explore results:
- Processing artifacts for individual documents
- Experiment-level analysis and timelines
- Provenance graphs showing processing history
- Export options for further analysis
Viewing Processing Results¶
Processing results are accessed through experiment result pages, which aggregate findings across all documents in an experiment.
Access Results¶
- Go to Experiments > Select an experiment
- Expand the View Results section
- Click a result type (Definitions, Entities, Embeddings, Segments, or Temporal)
Artifact Types¶
| Type | Contents |
|---|---|
| Text Segments | Paragraphs or sentences with character positions |
| Entities | Named entities with types and confidence scores |
| Embeddings | Vector representations (viewable as similarity scores) |
| Temporal Expressions | Dates, periods, and durations found in text |
| Definitions | Extracted concept definitions with pattern types |
Definition Results¶
Definition artifacts include:
- Term - The word or phrase being defined
- Definition text - The extracted definition content
- Pattern type - How it was detected (explicit_definition, explicit_reference, meaning, copula, acronym, also_known_as, ie_explanation, appositive)
- Confidence - Score from 0.65-0.90 depending on pattern reliability
- Source badge - "Pattern" (default) or "ZeroShot" (if enabled via
ENABLE_ZERO_SHOT_DEFINITIONS=true)
Acronym definitions show strict validation: "IRA (Information Retrieval Agent)" passes because expansion letters match the acronym.
Note: Definition extraction works best on documents that explicitly define terminology, such as glossaries, textbook introductions, or standards documents. Research papers that use but do not define terms may return few or no results.
Artifact Details¶
Each artifact shows:
- Operation type and timestamp
- Source document reference
- Processing parameters used
- Tool version (for reproducibility)
- Structured results
Experiment Results¶
Result Type Views¶
From the experiment page, use the View Results buttons to explore specific result types:
| Button | Shows |
|---|---|
| Definitions | Extracted term definitions across all documents |
| Entities | Named entities (people, organizations, places) |
| Embeddings | Semantic similarity search interface |
| Segments | Text segments with positions |
| Temporal | Dates, periods, and temporal markers |
Each view aggregates results from all documents in the experiment, enabling comparison of findings across the corpus.



Timeline View¶
For temporal evolution experiments:
- Go to Experiments > Select experiment
- View the timeline showing documents by period
- See term usage patterns across time
LLM Synthesis Results¶
When using LLM Orchestration:
- Go to Document Pipeline
- Click View Results on the orchestration status banner (shown when orchestration completes)
- See cross-document patterns and term cards
Note: The synthesis organizes findings but does not interpret them. Analytical conclusions remain with the researcher.
Provenance Tracking¶
OntExtract records complete PROV-O provenance for all operations.
Viewing Provenance¶
Each artifact links to its provenance chain showing:
- wasDerivedFrom - Source document(s)
- wasGeneratedBy - Processing activity
- wasAssociatedWith - Tool and version used
- used - Input entities consumed
Why Provenance Matters¶
- Reproducibility - Recreate exact processing conditions
- Transparency - Understand how results were generated
- Debugging - Trace unexpected results to their source
- Scholarly citation - Document analytical methodology
Export Options¶
Export Formats¶
| Format | Use Case |
|---|---|
| CSV | Tabular data for spreadsheets |
| JSON | Structured data for programming |
What Can Be Exported¶
- Processing artifacts with metadata
- Entity extraction results
- Segment text with positions
- Provenance records
Planned Features¶
The following results features are under consideration for future releases:
- Interactive timeline visualizations
- Semantic drift graphs
- Comparative period analysis
- Formatted report export (PDF)
Troubleshooting¶
No results showing¶
- Verify processing operations completed
- Check the experiment's View Results section
- Review experiment status
Missing artifacts¶
- Ensure the operation was selected during processing
- Check for errors in the processing log
- Verify document had extractable content