Page 170 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

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Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China 2018 Vol.44 169

No.2

On computational information analysis
〇a*
LI Guangjian〇 & JIANG Xinyu
Due to the impact of the big data environment and the fourth paradigm of scientific research, the
trend of computability in information analysis has become more obvious. First, as information
equipment becomes cheaper, the cost of tools for information analysis decreases and the path for
the computability of information analysis widens. Second, most of the objects to be processed
are in digital forms which enable a wider span of data resource to be analyzed. This creates more
opportunities for computing in information analysis. Third, computing methods have become more
intelligent, which brings about the ability to carry out an in-depth analysis and provides a deep
understanding of the information. These three factors play a decisive role in making the transition
from information analysis to Computational Information Analysis (CIA).
CIA is both a theory and an approach which derives from information analysis and information
technology of which computer technology is at the center. It is proposed to address the limitation
of human’s ability in collecting, processing and analyzing large amount of information. In
CIA, computers and related information technology are adopted as basic tools and intelligent
technologies like machine learning and knowledge understanding are incorporated as core
technology. Information analysis methods and mathematical models are used to organize and
analyze information. Through a deeper analysis and mining in the content, relationship and pattern
in the data, CIA helps analysts solve analysis problem and tasks and make decisions.
While human is inadequate in gathering, processing and analyzing large amount of data, CIA
makes up for that shortcoming with the ability to harness the fast computing power of computers
and is also more objective when compared with human. CIA provides a more comprehensive,
faster, accurate, objective and deeper analysis result for the target problems thanks to its
advantages in harnessing the power of computer technology and quantitative analysis methods. To
be more specific, CIA is driven by data mining and machine learning techniques on the analysis
environment which is built upon computers. The analysis of CIA is mainly quantitative and places
an emphasis on methods that can be processed by machines to undergo quantitative, computational
and testable process. Besides, CIA also contributes to the knowledge system as it not only inherits
theories and methods from information analysis but also borrows theories and methods from
computer science, data science, mathematical statistics and other fields and develops new theories

∗ Correspondence should be addressed to LI Guangjian, Email: ligj@pku.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-2897-6246