DOWARC is a domain ontology for the Semantic modelling of web archiving artefacts, such as WARC and CDX files, and web archiving activities.

It was created as a metadata tool for web archivists and digital preservationists, to support more sustainable and accessible archiving and preservation practices, particularly with regard to issues engendered by intensive versioning activities, such as lack of context and rise in storage demands.

The data model underpinning DOWARC is not far from vanilla implementation of the ORE-OAI model on which it openly builds. DOWARC imports and extends Dublin Core, FOAF, PAV, ORE-OAI, PROV, PREMIS. To facilitate use of DOWARC in diverse web archiving contexts (i.e., libraries and archives), the ontology also implements a high-level extension of FRBR and RiC.

DOWARC is currently in draft status. It will be presented to the GLAM and the Digital Humanities communities at the BDCAM2025 conference in London, and at the IIPC conference in Oslo.