Hc. Chen et al., AUTOMATIC THESAURUS GENERATION FOR AN ELECTRONIC COMMUNITY SYSTEM, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 46(3), 1995, pp. 175-193
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Information Science & Library Science","Information Science & Library Science
This research reports an algorithmic approach to the automatic generat
ion of thesauri for electronic community systems. The techniques used
included term filtering, automatic indexing, and cluster analysis. The
testbed for our research was the Worm Community System, which contain
s a comprehensive library of specialized community data and literature
, currently in use by molecular biologists who study the nematode worm
C. elegans. The resulting worm thesaurus included 2709 researchers' n
ames, 798 gene names, 20 experimental methods, and 4302 subject descri
ptors. On average, each term had about 90 weighted neighboring terms i
ndicating relevant concepts. The thesaurus was developed as an online
search aide. We tested the worm thesaurus in an experiment with six wo
rm researchers of varying degrees of expertise and background. The exp
eriment showed that the thesaurus was an excellent ''memory-jogging''
device and that it supported learning and serendipitous browsing. Desp
ite some occurrences of obvious noise, the system was useful in sugges
ting relevant concepts for the researchers' queries and it helped impr
ove concept recall. With a simple browsing interface, an automatic the
saurus can become a useful tool for online search and can assist resea
rchers in exploring. and traversing a dynamic and complex electronic c
ommunity system.