Tool Locates Experts for Academic Research
Knowledge Ventures has created Authority Finder, a concept-based search engine that helps students and other academics find expert sources to support their research. Authority Finder (www.authorityfinder.com) is a subscription-based query tool that uses natural language to locate relevant quotations and corresponding citations from a list of authoritative academic journals. The search engine can search against multiple textual databases, simultaneously making it a point-and-click process for the user. Once the list of potential quotes is retrieved, the results are ranked within seconds and presented in a list, with each quote accompanied by the author and title information of the particular quote's origin. Each quote can then be clicked on to view the entire article from which the quote was excerpted, with the quote highlighted so that the original content can be easily reviewed.
The database currently stores more than 35,000 articles from 250 American and English academic and business journals, covering a wide range of subjects, including business, medicine, art history, history, economics, science, technology, education, sociology and psychology from 1998 to the present. The database is updated regularly to include the most recent and relevant content from the data feed of journals. The material is provided under an agreement with the Gale Group. Knowledge Ventures, Naples, FL, (617) 249-0663, www.authorityfinder.com.
This article originally appeared in the 03/01/2002 issue of THE Journal.