Peer Reviewed Journal via three different mandatory reviewing processes, since 2006, and, from September 2020, a fourth mandatory peer-editing has been added.
This paper discusses a search paradigm for numerical data in
Earth science that relies on the intrinsic structure of an archive's
collection. Such non-textual data lies outside the normal textual
basis for the Semantic Web. The paradigm tries to bypass some
of the difficulties associated with keyword searches, such as
semantic heterogeneity. The suggested collection structure uses
a hierarchical taxonomy based on multidimensional axes of
continuous variables. This structure fits the underlying
'geometry' of Earth science data better than sets of keywords in
an ontology. The alternative paradigm views the search as a
two-agent cooperative game that uses a dialog between the
search engine and the data user. In this view, the search engine
knows about the objects in the archive. It cannot read the user's
mind to identify what the user needs. We assume the user has a
clear idea of the search target. However he or she may not have
a clear idea of the archive's contents. The paper suggests how
the user interface may provide information to deal with the
user's difficulties in understanding items in the dialog.
