Research interests: their dynamics, structures and applications in unifying search and reasoning

[Eugene Garfield]

Research interests: their dynamics, structures and applications in unifying 
search and reasoning

Author(s): Zeng, Y (Zeng, Yi); Zhou, EZ (Zhou, Erzhong); Wang, Y (Wang, 
Yan); Ren, X (Ren, Xu); Qin, YL (Qin, Yulin); Huang, ZS (Huang, Zhisheng); 
Zhong, N (Zhong, Ning)
Source: JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS  Volume: 37  Issue: 
1  Pages: 65-88  DOI: 10.1007/s10844-010-0144-1  Published: AUG 2011  

Abstract: Most scientific publication information, which may reflects scientists' 
research interests, is publicly available on the Web. Understanding the 
characteristics of research interests from previous publications may help to 
provide better services for scientists in the Web age. In this paper, we 
introduce some parameters to track the evolution process of research 
interests, we analyze their structural and dynamic characteristics. According to 
the observed characteristics of research interests, under the framework of 
unifying search and reasoning (ReaSearch), we propose interests-based 
unification of search and reasoning (I-ReaSearch). Under the proposed I-
ReaSearch method, we illustrate how research interests can be used to 
improve literature search on the Web. According to the relationship between an 
author's own interests and his/her co-authors interests, social group interests 
are also used to refine the literature search process. Evaluation from both the 
user satisfaction and the scalability point of view show that the proposed I-
ReaSearch method provides a user centered and practical way to problem 
solving on the Web. The efforts provide some hints and various methods to 
support personalized search, and can be considered as a step forward user 
centric knowledge retrieval on the Web. From the standpoint of the Active 
Media Technology (AMT) on the Wisdom Web, in this paper, the study on the 
characteristics of research interests is based on complex networks and human 
dynamics, which can be considered as an effort towards utilizing information 
physics to discover and explain the phenomena related to research interests of 
scientists. The application of research interests aims at providing scientific 
researchers best means and best ends in an active way for literature search on 
the Web.

Language: English
Document Type: Article
Author Keywords: Research interest detection; Retained interest; Interest 
duration; Web search refinement; Unifying search and reasoning
KeyWords Plus: COMPUTER-SCIENCE; PATTERNS; WEB

Addresses: [Zeng, Y; Zhou, EZ; Wang, Y; Ren, X; Qin, YL] Beijing Univ 
Technol, Int WIC Inst, Beijing 100124, Peoples R China
[Huang, ZS] Vrije Univ Amsterdam, Div Math & Comp Sci, NL-1081 HV 
Amsterdam, Netherlands
[Zhong, N] Maebashi Inst Technol, Dept Life Sci & Informat, Maebashi, Gumma 
3710816, Japan
Reprint Address: Zeng, Y (reprint author), Beijing Univ Technol, Int WIC Inst, 
Beijing 100124, Peoples R China

E-mail Address: yizeng at bjut.edu.cn, huang at cs.vu.nl, zhong at maebashi-it.ac.jp
ISSN: 0925-9902
URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3543g2158171300/