Open AccessSearching for uses and users in Gene Ontology research
Author(s) -
MacMullen W. John
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
DOI - 10.1002/meet.2008.14504503153
Subject(s) - ontology , computer science , data science , function (biology) , open biomedical ontologies , process (computing) , organism , informatics , knowledge management , process ontology , domain knowledge , biology , engineering , genetics , suggested upper merged ontology , philosophy , epistemology , electrical engineering , operating system
Despite millions of dollars in investment over the past decade in the creation and maintenance of the Gene Ontology (GO), little is known about how (or even if) its intended end users – biomedical researchers – actually employ the ontology and its related databases and interfaces in their work. This project is a preliminary investigation of what evidence exists in the literature of specific uses of GO by researchers, and of use cases proposed for researchers by system designers. This work will help inform future in-depth studies of the specific information needs and research questions that researchers might use GO and other similar knowledge structures to address. It also provides to library and information science researchers and practitioners some insight into the quantity, sources, and breadth of publications about GO that exist.