Structure & Style

• Purpose
• Sources
• Subject Coverage
• Numbers of Terms
• Style
• Structure and Relationships
• Layout and Displays
• Word Forms, Abbreviations, Spelling
• Vocabulary Control
• Term Selection
• ERIC Terms
• Place Names
• Complex Concepts

Purpose

The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, used to index documents of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) of the United States government, provides a wealth of terminology appropriate for indexing Integration and Implementation Sciences (IIS) resources. These resources include articles, monographs and case studies as well as individuals, organizations, projects and events. The ERIC thesaurus does not provide full coverage, however, and thus the IIS Thesaurus was created as a supplement to provide terminology for indexing unique IIS concepts.

Together, the ERIC thesaurus and the IIS Thesaurus constitute the IIS thesaurus system which represents the full scope of available controlled vocabulary for indexing and retrieving Integration and Implementation Sciences resources.

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Sources

The IIS Thesaurus operates in conjunction with the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, but also relies on the UNESCO Thesaurus to provide the authority for geographic place names. The official Web site for Integration and Implementation Sciences, hosted by Australian National University, and managed by Dr. Gabriele Bammer, was essential for identifying candidate vocabulary. Additional resources consulted in the construction of the IIS Thesaurus (articles, monographs, Web resources and other indexing languages) can be found in the Annotated Bibliography.

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Subject Coverage

The field of Integration and Implementation Sciences coordinates six primary areas of research from the exact and social sciences:

• Complexity Science - study of unpredictibility
• Systems Thinking - study of whole phenomena vs. reducing to parts
• Participatory Methods - study of human engagement with others: causes and results
• Diverse Epistemologies - study of different world views and definitions of knowledge
• Inter- and Transdisciplinarity - study of integrating fields of study
• Knowledge Management - study of collecting, interpreting, disseminating and utilising information

The IIS thesaurus system (ERIC and the IIS Thesaurus) is designed to cover these subjects to a moderate level of detail. For example, terms are included to represent the general concepts that comprise Complexity Science, including nonlinear dynamics, emergence, self-organisation, etc., but detailed terms more appropriate for a physics or mathematics thesaurus (e.g. bifurcation, phase transition, strange attractors, Lyapunov exponent) are not included.

The IIS thesaurus also covers activities and conditions that comprise or affect the processes of integrating ideas, goals, disciplines and world views to solve complex, large scale problems. For example, the IIS Thesaurus dinstinctly recognize the value of unique concepts like PROBLEM DEFINIION, INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, MARGINALISATION AND SCALABILITY.

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Numbers of Terms

There are nearly 6,300 terms in the ERIC thesaurus.

The IIS Thesaurus contains 200 terms. 174 of these are preferred terms, while the remaining 26 terms provide entry vocabulary that guide users from the term they are investigating to the preferred term that is to be used in indexing.

33 terms in the IIS Thesaurus are originally from the ERIC thesaurus. The reasons for including ERIC terms are discussed in the Vocabulary Control section below.

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Style

The follow descriptions refer only to the IIS Thesaurus.

Structure and Relationships

BTs, NTs, RTs

Broad (BT) and narrow (NT) relationships between terms usually reflect a class/member relationship (e.g. BT: KNOWLEDGE, NT: EXPERT KNOWLEDGE). Other BT/NT relationships include whole/part (e.g. BT: HUMAN BODY, NT: BRAIN) and process/thing (e.g. BT: INSTRUCTION, NT: ASSIGNMENTS).

The IIS Thesaurus is not currently poly-hierarchical. Each term has only one broader term (BT). When a term could logically be considered to fall under two broader terms, the second term is included as a related term. For example, in the IIS Thesaurus, COMPLEXITY THEORY is a narrower term (NT) of THEORIES (ERIC). It could also be considered a narrower term (NT) of COMPLEXITY SCIENCE, which is instead listed as a related term (RT).

In the IIS Thesaurus, an average of 6 related terms (RTs) are provided for each preferred term. These terms have been included to alert the user to other potentially relevant terms also in the thesaurus.

Preferred and Non-preferred Terms (USE, UF)

Entry vocabulary is provided so that searchers may be lead from the term they are investigating to the approved (preferred) term to use in indexing and searching. These non-preferred to preferred relationships are identified by use (USE) references (e.g. COLLABORATION, USE COOPERATION (ERIC)). The reciprocal relationship is identified by a used for (UF) reference (e.g. COOPERATION (ERIC), UF COLLABORATION).

Scope Notes (SN)

Scope notes (SN) are often used only to differentiate between similar terms in a thesaurus. The IIS thesaurus, however, uses scope notes more liberally to clarify definitions even when a similar term is not present. This is necessary because similar terms to IIS Thesaurus terms may actually exist in the ERIC thesaurus. The scope notes (SN) in the IIS Thesaurus also help to give a stronger characterization of the field of Integration and Implementation Sciences than the terms alone.

Reciprocal Relationships

All relationships within the IIS Thesaurus are reciprocal (for each BT there is an NT, for each NT there is a BT, for each RT there is a corresponding RT, and for each USE there is a corresponding UF reference). At this time, however, BTs, NTs, RTs or other references are not made between the ERIC and IIS thesauri.

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Layout and Displays

ALPHA (Alphabetical)

The alphabetical display lists all preferred and non-preferred terms in alphabetical order with any relationships (BT, NT, RT, USE, UF) or scope notes (SN). This display is most useful for scanning to find a specific term and then understanding the context and scope of that term. In the Alpha display of the IIS Thesaurus on the Web, all BT, NT, RT, USE, and UF references are hyperlinked to the referenced term(s).

Example of a preferred term in alphabetical display:

MEDIATION
 
    SN  Process of facilitating discussion between disputing parties such that they reconcile, settle or compromise without judicial intervention or arbitration
    BT  LAW
    RT  ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
         CONFLICT RESOLUTION (ERIC)
         FACILITATION
         FACILITATION METHODS
         FACILITATORS
         INTERMEDIARIES
         MEDIATION THEORY
         PARTICIPATORY METHODS
         PRINCIPLED NEGOTIATION

* The scope note (SN) and broader term (BT) restrict the use of this term and do not allow its use for the mediation of chemicals, emotions, or any other entities.

Example of a non-preferred term and reciprocal preferred term in alphabetical display:

COLLABORATION

    USE COOPERATION (ERIC)

COOPERATION (ERIC)

    SN  Act of working together toward a common goal
         (Note: Use a more specific term if possible) (ERIC)
         Index with other terms to represent UF references.
    UF  COLLABORATION
         COLLABORATIVE METHODS
         COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
    BT  PROCESS-BASED ACTIVITIES
    RT  PARTNERSHIPS

TREE (Hierarchical)

The tree display is a hierarchical display which shows only the preferred terms in a rudimentary classification system established by the broader term (BT) and narrower term (NT) relationships. This display is useful for browsing and exploring subject areas to discover available terms that may not have been considered previously. The tree display does not show related terms or scope notes or allow for hyperlinking.

EXACT SCIENCES
    NT  COMPLEXITY SCIENCE
            NT  EMERGENCE
                  NONLINEAR DYNAMICS
                  UNCERTAINTY
          SYSTEMS SCIENCE
            NT  COMPLEX SYSTEMS
                  SELF-ORGANISATION
                  SYSTEM DYNAMICS

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Word Forms, Abbreviations, Spelling

Singular/Plural Noun Forms

All terms are formatted in noun forms. The plural form is used for count nouns (nouns about which one would ask "how many?"), and the singular form is used for mass nouns (nouns about which one would ask "how much?").

Composite Terms

Composite terms, consisting of two or more words, appear in natural word order (e.g. COMPLEX PROBLEMS, not PROBLEMS, COMPLEX).

Parenthetical Expressions

Parenthetical expressions are used to differentiate between terms with more than one accepted meaning (e.g. INUIT (PEOPLE), INUIT (LANGUAGE)).

Abbreviations

The IIS Thesaurus uses the following abbreviations:

    SN:  Scope note
    UF:  Used for this non-preferred term
    USE: Use this term instead
    BT:  Broader term(s)
    NT:  Narrower term(s)
    RT:  Related term(s)

"(ERIC)" Designation

All terms and scope notes (SN) borrowed from ERIC for inclusion in the IIS Thesaurus are followed with the "(ERIC)" designation. The reasons for including ERIC terms are discussed in the Vocabulary Control section below.

Spelling

It was determined that the IIS Thesaurus should be written in International (British) English in service to the majority of its anticipated users (and the key scholar). The Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors is a product of the American government and, as such, appears in American English. The IIS Thesaurus does its best to use British English, but it cannot when terms have been borrowed from ERIC. As such, the language of the IIS Thesaurus currently appears somewhat inconsistent. Once the relevant terms from ERIC have been imported into the ISS Thesaurus (See Next Steps), they can be modified to reflect the appropriate spellings.

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Vocabulary Control

How terms were selected
Terms in the IIS Thesaurus were selected via a three step process. First a review was conducted of seminal IIS literature and published descriptions of key personnel and organizations conducting IIS related research and activities. Approximately 500 key concepts representing ideas, entities or activities were identified as candidates for indexing terminology. After other indexing languages were eliminated, the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors was consulted to identify terms that adequately represented each concept. Finally, each concept that was not satisfactorily represented by an ERIC descriptor was added to the IIS Thesaurus as a unique term, assigned preferred or non-preferred status, and formatted according to the word form conventions outlined in the Style section above.

Borrowing ERIC Terms

It was necessary to include some ERIC terms in the IIS Thesaurus. There are a number of reasons for "borrowing" ERIC terms:

• the ERIC term provides a necessary Broader Term (BT) for narrower IIS specific terms. (e.g. THEORIES (ERIC) contains 10 narrower terms (NTs) like COMPLEXITY THEORY and SYSTEMS THEORY)
• the ERIC term represents one of the 6 key IIS research areas or 8 sectors of application (e.g. INTERDISICIPLINARY APPROACH (ERIC), BUSINESS (ERIC))
• sibling terms from ERIC have been included in order to provide a full range of narrower terms. (e.g. CRITICAL THEORY (ERIC) and POSTMODERNISM (ERIC) are included with POSITIVIST THEORY and INTERPREVIST THEORY, etc. to show a range of epistemologies)
• the ERIC term is included when a non-preferred IIS term indicates that an ERIC term should be used. (e.g. QUANTITATIVE METHODS use STATISTICAL ANALYSIS (ERIC))

All terms and scope notes (SN) borrowed from ERIC for inclusion the IIS Thesaurus are followed with the "(ERIC)" designation.

Geographic Place Names

With the exception of STATES, PROVINCES and NATIONS, geographic entities are not included in either the ERIC or IIS thesauri. Use the "Countries and country groupings" section of the UNESCO thesaurus to find approved terminology (http://www.ulcc.ac.uk/unesco/7.htm). You will not find smaller units than the states and commonwealths of the United States. The terms STATES and NATIONS are both included in the IIS Thesaurus. While some documents refer to sovereign nations as states, the IIS Thesaurus refers the user to the term NATIONS for this purpose. STATES is used only to refer to U.S. provincial entities.

Complex Concepts

Terms in the IIS and ERIC thesauri are simple terms and not pre-coordinated to represent complex concepts. Therefore a concept like "collaborative research partnerships" might have to be represented with component terms like COOPERATION (ERIC), RESEARCH (ERIC), and PARTNERSHIPS.

Decisions regarding word forms (plural, singular, etc.) are discussed in the Style section above.

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