THE CREATION OF NEW KNOWLEDGE BY INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND CLASSIFICATION
| Published date | 01 April 1989 |
| Date | 01 April 1989 |
| Pages | 273-301 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026846 |
| Author | ROY DAVIES |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE
Journal of Documentation
THE CREATION OF NEW KNOWLEDGE
BY INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND CLASSIFICATION
ROY DAVIES
University
of Exeter, Stocker
Road,
Exeter EX4 4PT
Knowledge can be created by drawing inferences from what is already known.
Often some of the requisite information is lacking and has to be gathered by
whatever research techniques are appropriate, e.g. experiments, surveys etc.
Even if the information has all been published already, unless it is retrieved no
inferences will be drawn from it and consequently there will exist some
knowledge that
is
implicit
in the
literature and yet
is
not known by
anyone.
This
'undiscovered public knowledge', as it is termed by Swanson, may exist in the
following forms: (i) a hidden refutation or qualification of a hypothesis; (ii) an
undrawn conclusion from two or more premises; (iii) the cumulative evidence
of weak, independent tests; (iv) solutions to analogous problems; (v) hidden
correlations between factors. Methods of classification may also play a direct
role in
the
creation of original knowledge. Novel solutions to problems may be
discovered by generating different combinations of the basic features of the
solutions, as is done in morphological analysis. Alternatively a natural
classification may identify gaps in existing knowledge. This paper reviews
previous work on producing knowledge by information retrieval or
classification and describes techniques by which hidden knowledge may be
retrieved,
e.g.
serendipity
in
browsing, use of appropriate search strategies and,
possibly in the future, methods based on Farradane's relational indexing or
artificial intelligence.
INTRODUCTION: THE REALITY OF UNDISCOVERED PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
THE TECHNIQUES OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL are normally
thought of
as
methods whereby people may obtain knowledge which may be
new to them but is not original. Indeed, as it is possible to retrieve only that
which has previously been stored the idea of retrieving information that is
Journal
of
Documentation,
Vol.
45,
No. 4, December 1989, pp.
273-301.
273
JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION Vol.
45,
no. 4
unknown to anyone anywhere seems preposterous. Nevertheless in a
remarkable series of papers Swanson has argued very plausibly that some
knowledge which has never been stated explicitly or even implicitly (though it
may be implicit
in
the literature as
a
whole) may be readily inferred from what
has already been published
[1-5].
Similar ideas have been discussed by other
writers but none have investigated the topic as thoroughly as Swanson or
produced such convincing examples. He has christened this inferable
information 'undiscovered public knowledge'. It
is
public in the sense that it is
composed entirely of findings that have been published and are therefore
'known' but the conclusion to be drawn from these findings will not be
discovered until someone retrieves the relevant documents and notices the
logical connections between them. As these documents may ostensibly be
concerned with different topics or even different disciplines that could take a
long
time
and might be
a
matter of chance or
serendipity.
According to Horace
Walpole who coined the term, serendipity has the following characteristics:
first, it involves unexpected, accidental discoveries made when looking for
something
else;
second, it is a faculty or knack; third, these discoveries should
occur at the right time
[6].
Thus it would seem there
is
an art to the making of
serendipitous discoveries or, as Louis Pasteur said in a comment on 0rsted's
discovery of electromagnetism, 'chance only favours the mind which is
prepared' [7]. In the late 1950s various cases of serendipity in scientific
communication were studied by Menzel who suggested that ways of
improving
the
efficiency of all aspects of
the
communication system, including
unplanned or accidental acquisition of information, should
be
investigated
[8].
Ways of encouraging serendipity in the use of information systems have been
discussed by Bawden [9]. Discoveries that would have been feasible,
comprehensible and recognisably significant at an earlier date are termed
'postmature' by Zuckerman and Lederberg [10], in contrast to premature
discoveries which receive delayed recognition as they are ahead of their time.
Garfield has suggested that the study of postmature discoveries could help us
to understand how the progress of science might be accelerated [11]. Such
discoveries may be made in libraries as well as in laboratories. Swanson has
challenged librarians to develop more reliable methods of finding documents
which when taken together
like
the
pieces
of a jigsaw
puzzle reveal
information
which was not previously apparent. This paper reviews Swanson's studies,
compares them with related work in information science and other disciplines
and
finally
considers ways in which further progress might be achieved.
The growth of scientific knowledge
is
often compared with the construction
of a great building. Thus in the words of Medawar, '[t]he scientist values
research by the size of its contribution to that huge, logically articulated
structure of ideas which
is
already, though not yet half built, the most glorious
accomplishment of mankind' [12, p.
126].
In contrast Popper has compared
the
growth of knowledge to that of a garden
[13,
p.
343].
Although gardens like
buildings are planned their development is only partly due to human activity
and the various plants may compete, shelter and generally interact with each
other
in
ways that are not always foreseeable.
A
garden, unlike a building, has
274
To continue reading
Request your trial