Medical knowledge evolution query constraining aspects

Abstract

In this paper we present a first analysis towards better understanding of the query constraining aspects of knowledge, as expressed in the most used public medical bibliographic database MEDLINE. Our results indicate, possibly not surprising, that new terms occur, but also that traditional terms are replaced by more specific ones or even go out of use as they become common knowledge. Hence, as knowledge evolve over time, search methods may benefit from becoming more sensitive to knowledge expression, to enable finding new, as well as older, relevant database contents.