"""Making a sound"" in chemical information: The importance of a structure editor in information retrieval"

Currano, Judith

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/78265 Copy

Description

Title

"""Making a sound"" in chemical information: The importance of a structure editor in information retrieval"

Author(s)

Currano, Judith

Issue Date

1999

Keyword(s)

Information retrieval

Abstract

The importance of chemical structure in information retrieval, and conventions for representing three-dimensional structures on a flat surface form the background for this study of methods of retrieving structures in electronic databases. Storage is a particular problem. Fragmentation codes are ambiguous, (incapable of specifying the order of functional groups in a molecule), inflexible, and require a large amount of user training. Linear notation, while being unambiguous and more flexible, still involves a fair amount of user training. Connection tables, the easiest method to use, accurately specify the order and connectivity of atoms but omit the important feature of stereochemistry. Thus far, object-oriented programming offers the only method of specifying stereochemistry, although a recommendation is made for a text-based system that combines connection tables with the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog rules for assigning stereochemistry, creating a more specific and universal system. This article discusses the problem of using chemical structure for information retrieval and the difficulty of representing chemical structure in a machine-readable form.

Publisher

Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Katharine Sharp Review ; no. 008, Summer, 1999

ISSN

1083-5261

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78265

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 1999 is held by Judith Currano

Owning Collections