Literature-Based Discovery? The Very Idea

How is it possible to extract new knowledge from something already published? The possibility arises, for example, when two articles considered together suggest information of scientific interest not apparent from either article alone. In that sense, the two articles are complementary, a relationship based on the scientific problems, findings, and arguments presented. Whether the information found is also new and can lead to a plausible, testable hypothesis requires further searching and analysis of the literature from which it emerged. The purpose of this introduction is to outline goals, concepts, problems, and literature structures that offer one approach to understanding the potential and limitations of literature-based discovery (LBD) independently of specific computer techniques that may be used to assist or implement it. The seeds of most of the basic concepts of LBD can be seen within the following classic exemplar of complementarity from a century ago that was of extraordinary importance to science.