Towards integrating research on retrieval- and communication-oriented studies in library information science

In this paper, an idea for integrating research in information retrieval and scientific communication in LIS is proposed. This idea is based on the generation and use of subject maps for documents in a specific domain. A subject map, as defined in this paper, is a kind of representation of the important subjects in the target domain and their mutual conceptual relationships, on a two-dimensional graph. The map can be used in many applications in information retrieval and scientific communication. For example, it can be used as an interface in information retrieval systems, to display terms and their relationships in thesauri, and as a tool to explore research and developments of a scientific discipline. The method to generate subject maps is also described. The method comprises four processes: document preparation, information extraction, map generation, and information visualization. All these processes are based on concepts and technologies from both the domains of information retrieval and scientific communication.