Literature-Related Discovery: A Review

Discovery in science is the generation of novel, interesting, plausible, and intelligible knowledge about the objects of study. Literature-related discovery (LRD) is the linking of two or more literature concepts that have heretofore not been linked to produce novel interesting, plausible, and intelligible knowledge (i.e., potential discovery). Two major variants of LRD are open discovery systems (ODS), where one starts with a problem and generates a potential solution (or vice versa), and closed discovery systems (CDS), where one starts with a problem and a potential solution and generates linking mechanisms. This report reviews the state-of-the-art in ODS LRD only. It examines the major LRD concepts, evaluates each concept in detail from the perspective of discovery capability, and examines the level of potential discovery reported in the literature from each concept's implementation. In the evaluation of potential discovery claimed in the published literature, a vetting process is used that requires that both characteristics of ODS LRD are present for potential discovery to be affirmed: concepts are linked that have not been linked previously, and novel, interesting, plausible, and intelligible knowledge is produced. The major conclusions are that, until recently, most of the reported ODS LRD techniques had not generated discovery, and this lack of discovery had hampered the growth of ODS LRD substantially. However, ODS LRD techniques have been developed that allow significantly greater amounts of potential discovery to be generated systematically.