Production of Printed Indexes of Chemical Reactions. II. Analysis of Reactions Involving Ring Formation, Cleavage, and Interconversion

Information retrieval research in the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield: 1965-1985

This paper discusses research which was carried out at the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield in the period 1965 to 1985 into storage and retrieval techniques for databases of textual and chemical structure data. The research includes the development of methods for the auto matic production of printed subject indexes and for the inde xing and retrieval of chemical structures and chemical reac tions, the variety generation method for the analysis, characterization and storage of data in a range of types of textual database, the prediction of biological activity in chemical compounds, and the design of document retrieval systems.

A method for the machine detection of near equivalence of major substructures in a molecule

The use of the concept of near equivalence of substructures in a computer program concerned with organic synthesis requires a concrete definition of «nearness» and an efficient method for implementing the concept. Such a method has been devised and its use is described and examples are given.