Creating an ignorance-base: Exploring known unknowns in the scientific literature.

Journal: Journal of biomedical informatics
Published Date: Jun 1, 2023

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Scientific discovery progresses by exploring new and uncharted territory. More specifically, it advances by a process of transforming unknown unknowns first into known unknowns, and then into knowns. Over the last few decades, researchers have developed many knowledge bases to capture and connect the knowns, which has enabled topic exploration and contextualization of experimental results. But recognizing the unknowns is also critical for finding the most pertinent questions and their answers. Prior work on known unknowns has sought to understand them, annotate them, and automate their identification. However, no knowledge-bases yet exist to capture these unknowns, and little work has focused on how scientists might use them to trace a given topic or experimental result in search of open questions and new avenues for exploration. We show here that a knowledge base of unknowns can be connected to ontologically grounded biomedical knowledge to accelerate research in the field of prenatal nutrition.

Authors

  • Mayla R Boguslav
    Computational Bioscience Program, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, E 17th Avenue, Aurora, 80045, CO, USA. Electronic address: Mayla.Boguslav@CUAnschutz.edu.
  • Nourah M Salem
    Computational Bioscience Program, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, E 17th Avenue, Aurora, 80045, CO, USA.
  • Elizabeth K White
  • Katherine J Sullivan
    Computational Bioscience Program, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, E 17th Avenue, Aurora, 80045, CO, USA.
  • Michael Bada
    Computational Bioscience Program, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado 80045, USA.
  • Teri L Hernandez
    College of Nursing, Department of Medicine/Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, & Diabetes, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, E 17th Avenue, Aurora, 80045, CO, USA.
  • Sonia M Leach
    Computational Bioscience Program, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, E 17th Avenue, Aurora, 80045, CO, USA; Center for Genes, Environment and Health, National Jewish Health, Jackson Street, Denver, 80206, CO, USA.
  • Lawrence E Hunter
    Computational Bioscience Program and Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado 80045, USA.

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