Artificial Intelligence An interactive system for finding complementary literatures : a stimulus to scientific discovery

Abstract An unintended consequence of specialization in science is poor communication across specialties. Information developed in one area of research may be of value in another without anyone becoming aware of the fact. We describe and evaluate interactive software and database search strategies that facilitate the discovery of previously unknown cross specialty information of scientific interest. The user begins by searching MEDLINE for article titles that identify a problem or topic of interest. From downloaded titles the software constructs input for additional database searches and produces a series of heuristic aids that help the user select a second set of articles complementary to the first set and from a different area of research. The two sets are complementary if together they can reveal new useful information that cannot be inferred from either set alone. The software output further helps the user identify the new information and derive from it a novel testable hypothesis. We report several successful tests and applications of the system.

[1]  D. Swanson,et al.  Linking estrogen to Alzheimer's disease , 1996, Neurology.

[2]  J. Ziman,et al.  The proliferation of scientific literature: a natural process. , 1980, Science.

[3]  Stephen P. Harter,et al.  Online Information Retrieval: Concepts, Principles and Techniques , 1986 .

[4]  D. Swanson.  Medical literature as a potential source of new knowledge. , 1990, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[5]  Henry G. Small,et al.  Co-citation in the scientific literature: A new measure of the relationship between two documents , 1973, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[6]  M. Ferrari,et al.  Intracellular and Plasma Magnesium in Familial Hemiplegic Migraine and Migraine With and Without Aura , 1994, Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache.

[7]  D. Swanson.  Fish Oil, Raynaud's Syndrome, and Undiscovered Public Knowledge , 2015, Perspectives in biology and medicine.

[8]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  Probabilistic models for automatic indexing , 1974, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[9]  Joshua Lederberg,et al.  Postmature scientific discovery? , 1986, Nature.

[10]  Zhengxin Chen.  Let Documents Talk to each other: a Computer Model for Connection of Short Documents , 1993, J. Documentation.

[11]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Processes of Scientific Discovery: The Strategy of Experimentation , 1988, Cogn. Sci..

[12]  J. A. Fisher.  Fish Oil , 1988, The Lancet.

[13]  Neil R. Smalheiser,et al.  Assessing a gap in the biomedical literature: Magnesium deficiency and neurologic disease , 1994 .

[14]  GreenRebecca.  Topical relevance relationships. I , 1995 .

[15]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  Online search for logically-related noninteractive medical literatures: A systematic trial-and-error strategy , 1989, JASIS.

[16]  J. Ravetz.  Sociology of Science , 1972, Nature.

[17]  Richard A. Shweder,et al.  Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities , 1987 .

[18]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  Complementary structures in disjoint science literatures , 1991, SIGIR '91.

[19]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  Two medical literatures that are logically but not bibliographically connected , 1987, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[20]  Raúl E. Valdés-Pérez,et al.  Conjecturing Hidden Entities by Means of Simplicity and Conservation Laws: Machine Discovery in Chemistry , 1994, Artif. Intell..

[21]  Roy Davies,et al.  The Creation of New Knowledge by Information Retrieval and Classification , 1989, J. Documentation.

[22]  Rebecca Green,et al.  Topical Relevance Relationships. I. Why Topic Matching Fails , 1995, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[23]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Scientific discovery: compulalional explorations of the creative process , 1987 .

[24]  Stephen P. Harter,et al.  Heuristics for Online Information Retrieval: A Typology and Preliminary Listing. , 1985 .

[25]  Joshua Lederberg.  Communication as the Root of Scientific Progress , 1991 .

[26]  Michael D. Gordon,et al.  Toward Discovery Support Systems: A Replication, Re-Examination, and Extension of Swanson's Work on Literature-Based Discovery of a Connection between Raynaud's and Fish Oil , 1996, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[27]  Rebecca Green.  Syntagmatic Relationships in Index Languages: A Reassessment , 1995, The Library Quarterly.

[28]  E. Garfield.  Essays Of An Information Scientist , 1977 .

[29]  Mark A. Spasser.  The Enacted Fate of Undiscovered Public Knowledge , 1997, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[30]  D. Swanson.  Undiscovered Public Knowledge , 1986 .

[31]  Mark A. Spasser.  The Enacted Fate of Undiscovered Public Knowledge , 1997, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[32]  D. Swanson.  Somatomedin C and Arginine: Implicit Connections between Mutually Isolated Literatures , 2015, Perspectives in biology and medicine.

[33]  Stephen P. Harter.  Scientific inquiry: A model for online searching , 1984, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[34]  A R Gardner-Medwin,et al.  Possible roles of vertebrate neuroglia in potassium dynamics, spreading depression and migraine. , 1981, The Journal of experimental biology.

[35]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  Intervening in the Life Cycles of Scientific Knowledge Patrick Wilson, The Value of Currency , 1993, Libr. Trends.

[36]  D. Swanson.  Migraine and Magnesium: Eleven Neglected Connections , 2015, Perspectives in biology and medicine.

[37]  D. Swanson,et al.  Indomethacin and Alzheimer's disease , 1996, Neurology.

[38]  Susanne M. Humphrey.  Indexing biomedical documents: From thesaural to knowledge-based retrieval systems , 1992, Artif. Intell. Medicine.

[39]  Susanne M. Humphrey,et al.  Knowledge-based indexing of the medical literature: The Indexing Aid Project , 1987, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[40]  R. DiGiacomo,et al.  Fish-oil dietary supplementation in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon: a double-blind, controlled, prospective study. , 1989, The American journal of medicine.