Title: Using search strategies and a description logic paradigm with conditional preferences for literature search

Authors: Jorg Schellhase, Thomas Lukasiewicz

Addresses: Fachgebiet Wirtschaftsinformatik, Universitat Kassel, Nora-Platiel-Strasse 4, 34127 Kassel, Germany. ' Computing Laboratory, University of Oxford, Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK; Institut fur Informationssysteme, Technische Universitat Wien, Favoritenstrasse 9-11, 1040 Wien, Austria

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel query formalism for literature search, which is based on description logics and variable-strength conditional preferences. Query languages of current search engines are very restricted in their expressive power. There are scientific search engines on the web, however, that have valuable metadata about research publications, authors, organisations, and scientific events. We show that description logics with conditional preferences allow for a more powerful query language, which can exploit the available metadata more effectively than the current approaches do. In particular, our approach allows for expressing nearly all important information search strategies proposed by Bates. We also describe a dialogue-oriented interface to the new query formalism and discuss possible extensions.

Keywords: literature search; conditional preferences; description logics; search strategies; digital libraries; search engines; search queries; information retrieval; query formalisms; metadata.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2008.021206

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2008 Vol.3 No.1, pp.68 - 83

Published online: 10 Nov 2008 *

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