Computers and Biotechnical Terminology: Accessing and Integrating Data from Diverse Sources

Biotechnical information on computers presents special terminology challenges for locating and integrating computer data from diverse sources and levels. Standard nomenclature problems such as synonyms, homographs, and name changes are compounded when they arise on computers for names of databases, entities, and variables, as well as data values from multiple independent sources.At the same time, computers make possible the development of new tools to meet these challenges. The data thesaurus is one such tool that helps integrate different types of data. It provides a systematic framework within which both people and computer programs can reconcile terminology from diverse, autonomous databases. Data thesauri also can help guide evolution of international standards for nomenclature and classification.