Computers scientific information

Attempts to manage specialized scientific information have given birth to the new discipline of informatics. The branch of informatics that deals primarily with genomic (sequence) data is bioinformatics, whereas cheminformatics deals with chemically oriented data. Informatics examines the way people work with computer-based information. Computers can access huge warehouses of information in the form of databases. Effective mining of these databases can, in principle, lead to knowledge. 

As always, we try to be heedful of the needs of our readers and authors. Every effort is made to produce volumes that will have sustained usefulness in learning, teaching, and research. We appreciate the fact that the community of computational chemists has found that these volumes fulfill a need. In the most recent data on impact factors from the Institute of Scientific Information (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Reviews in Computational Chemistry is ranked fourth among serials (journals and books) in the field of computational chemistry. (In first place is the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling, followed by the Journal of Computational Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. In fifth and sixth places are the Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design and the Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science, respectively.)... 

The Institute of Scientific Information (ISI, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) operates a computer-based weekly service called ASCA (Automatic Subject Citation Alert). Articles from prime scientific journals may be located through cited item terms as well as through title terms. Clusters of articles with common references will usually be about the same subject, so a reference used as a profile term will locate articles citing that reference, as articles are published. A similar principle is employed in the Science Citation Index for retrospective searching, where all items having a common reference are brought together beneath the item they cite. 

Althought it is still in the early stage of development, not unlike that of computer and information technology in the 1950s, nanotechnology is a rapidly expanding scientific field. 

The technology for computer-based scientific information retrieval provides an efficient means of surveying the analytical literature. For example, complete archives of all American Chemical Society journals have recently become available on-line. 

The network links the users to the host computer. A few international companies serve this purpose throughout the world. An example is the USA-based Intercontinental INFONET network, which links computers via coaxial leads and artificial satellites. The telephone line is also commonly used as the vehicle for transmission of scientific Information. 

Although they are only indirectly concerned with information retrieval from the literature, it is worth noting that the computer has also made significant contributions to the production of printed indexes. Much of the work has involved the production of traditional indexes by computer methods, ranging from simple Uniterm and keyword indexes to fully articulated subject indexes and dual dictionaries. Products more particularly of the computer age are permuted indexes such as the Permuterm Index of the Institute for Scientific Information and the KWIC, KWAC, KWOC family. 

Another factor in our selection of Journal of Computational Chemistry and THEOCHEM is that the former has had the highest impact factor of any journal specializing in this field, whereas the latter has one of the lowest. The Institute of Scientific Information (Philadelphia) rates the scientific literature on the basis of how often a paper or a journal is cited, the rationale being that more important papers and journals are more likely to be read by people in the field and cited in their subsequent writings. In 1993 the impact factor of Journal of Computational Chemistry (3.592) was almost four times that of THEOCHEM (0.951).+ Thus, in selecting these two journals, we are sampling a wide spectrum of the literature in terms of past selectivity and significance. 

The Wiswesser line notation was already invented in 1938, i.e., before the advent of computers that could effectively use it [10-14], In 1960, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) developed the Index Chemicus, based on the Wiswesser line notation. The Wiswesser line notation is based on sequences of letters, numbers, and other characters as shown in Table 14.5. Numbers refer to the number of carbon atoms. For example, QV refers to acetic acid, and Q2 refers to ethyl alcohol. 

An increased attention to the overall productivity of research and development, in part, provided the justification to access more effectively the scientific information present within the company. Although this was not a new request and although it was quite simple in principle, realisation had to wait until chemical information, expressed as graphical structural information, was accessible by computer. Similar justification can be used to provide support for the retrieval of biological data and other forms of basic scientific information in a knowledge-based industry. 

This chapter is useful to chemical/pharmaceutical companies that utilise computers for chemical and scientific information management. 

We are delighted to report that the Institute for Scientific information, Inc. (ISI) rates the Reviews in Computational Chemistry book series in the top ten in the category of general journals and periodicals. The reason for these accomplishments rests firmly on the shoulders of the authors whom we have contacted to provide the pedagogically driven reviews that have made this ongoing book series so popular. To those authors we are especially grateful. 

Aiello, L., and Micarelli, A. Knowledge Engineering Environments and Intelligent Tutors. Invited paper in MIPRO-88 11 Professional-Scientific Meeting, New Generation of Computers Symposia, Rijeka, Yugoslavia, 1988 and in ISCIS III, the Third International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences, Izmir, Turkey, 1988. 

Indication The data set of the image was obtained from the International Scientific Data Service Platform, Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (http //datamirror.csdb.cn). The earthquake data were obtained from China Earthquake Networks Center. The drawing software MAPGIS was purchased from Zondy Cyber Group Co., Ltd. 

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