Editing Information science (section)

== Foundations ==

=== Scope and approach ===
Information science focuses on understanding [[problem solving|problems]] from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. In other words, it tackles systemic problems first rather than individual pieces of [[technology]] within that system. In this respect, one can see information science as a response to [[technological determinism]], the belief that technology "develops by its own laws, that it realizes its own potential, limited only by the material resources available and the creativity of its developers. It must therefore be regarded as an autonomous system controlling and ultimately permeating all other subsystems of society."<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/Techno_deter.html
| title=Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems: Technological Determinism
| publisher=Principia Cibernetica Web
| access-date=2011-11-28
| archive-date=2011-11-12
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111112233108/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/TECHNO_DETER.html
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

Many universities have entire colleges, departments or schools devoted to the study of information science, while numerous information-science scholars work in disciplines such as [[communication]], [[healthcare]], [[computer science]], [[law]], and [[sociology]]. Several institutions have formed an I-School Caucus (see ''[[List of I-Schools]]''), but numerous others besides these also have comprehensive information specializations.

Within information science, current issues {{as of | 2013 | lc = on}} include:
* [[Human–computer interaction]] for science
* [[Groupware]]
* The [[Semantic Web]]
* [[Value sensitive design]]
* [[Iterative design]] processes
* The ways people generate, use and find information

===Definitions===
The first known usage of the term "information science" was in 1955.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information%20science|title=Definition of INFORMATION SCIENCE|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|access-date=2017-09-25|archive-date=2017-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925132248/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information%20science|url-status=live}}</ref> An early definition of Information science (going back to 1968, the year when the ''American Documentation Institute'' renamed itself as the ''American Society for Information Science and Technology'') states:

:"Information science is that discipline that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information for optimum accessibility and usability. It is concerned with that body of knowledge relating to the origination, collection, organization, storage, retrieval, interpretation, transmission, transformation, and utilization of information. This includes the authenticity  of information representations in both natural and artificial systems, the use of codes for efficient message transmission, and the study of information processing devices and techniques such as computers and their programming systems. It is an interdisciplinary science derived from and related to such fields as mathematics, logic, linguistics, psychology, computer technology, operations research, the graphic arts, communications, management, and other similar fields. It has both a pure science component, which inquires into the subject without regard to its application, and an applied science component, which develops services and products." {{harv|Borko|1968|p=3}}.<ref>Borko, H. (1968). Information science: What is it? ''American Documentation'' 19(1), 3¬5.</ref>

====Related terms====
Some authors use [[informatics]] as a synonym for ''information science''. This is especially true when related to the concept developed by [[Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailov|A. I. Mikhailov]] and other Soviet authors in the mid-1960s. The Mikhailov school saw informatics as a discipline related to the study of scientific information.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mikhailov | first1 = A.I. | last2 = Chernyl | first2 = A.I. | last3 = Gilyarevskii | first3 = R.S. | year = 1966 | title = Informatika – novoe nazvanie teorii naučnoj informacii | journal = Naučno Tehničeskaja Informacija | volume = 12 | pages = 35–39 }}</ref>
Informatics is difficult to precisely define because of the rapidly evolving and [[interdisciplinary]] nature of the field. Definitions reliant on the nature of the tools used for deriving meaningful information from data are emerging in Informatics academic programs.<ref>{{cite web | title = Informatics | author = Texas Woman's University | year = 2015 | url = http://www.twu.edu/math-computer-science/informatics.asp | access-date = 2016-02-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160224213806/http://www.twu.edu/math-computer-science/informatics.asp | archive-date = 2016-02-24 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Regional differences and international terminology complicate the problem. Some people{{which|date=July 2014}} note that much of what is called "Informatics" today was once called "Information Science" – at least in fields such as [[Medical Informatics]]. For example, when library scientists also began to use the phrase "Information Science" to refer to their work, the term "informatics" emerged:
* in the United States as a response by computer scientists to distinguish their work from that of [[library science]]
* in Britain as a term for a science of information that studies natural, as well as artificial or engineered, information-processing systems

Another term discussed as a synonym for "information studies" is "[[information systems]]". [[Brian Campbell Vickery]]'s ''Information Systems'' (1973) placed information systems within IS.<ref>Vickery; B. C. (1973). Information Systems. London: Butterworth.</ref> {{harvtxt|Ellis|Allen|Wilson|1999}}, on the other hand, provided a bibliometric investigation describing the relation between two ''different'' fields: "information science" and "information systems".<ref>{{citation |last1=Ellis |first1=D. |last2=Allen |first2=D. |last3=Wilson |first3=T. |date=1999 |title=Information Science and Information Systems: Conjunct Subjects Disjunct Disciplines |work=JASIS |volume=50 |number=12 |pages=1095–1107 |url=http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2000/monarch_2000.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425073115/http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2000/monarch_2000.pdf}}</ref>

===Philosophy of information===
{{Main|Philosophy of information}}

Philosophy of information studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of [[psychology]], [[computer science]], [[information technology]], and [[philosophy]]. It includes the investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of [[information]], including its dynamics, utilisation and sciences, as well as the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to its philosophical problems.<ref>Luciano Floridi, [http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pci/downloads/introduction.pdf "What is the Philosophy of Information?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120316090017/http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pci/downloads/introduction.pdf |date=2012-03-16 }},   ''Metaphilosophy'', 2002, (33), 1/2.</ref> Robert Hammarberg pointed out that there is no coherent distinction between information and data: "an Information Processing System (IPS) cannot process data except in terms of whatever representational language is inherent to it, [so] data could not even be apprehended by an IPS without becoming representational in nature, and thus losing their status of being raw, brute, facts."<ref>Robert Hammarberg. The cooked and the raw. Journal of Information Science, 3(6):261–267, 1981.</ref>

=== Ontology ===
{{Main|Ontology (information science)}}

In science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a [[Domain of discourse|domain]], and the relationships between those concepts.  It can be used to [[reason]] about the entities within that domain and may be used to describe the domain.

More specifically, an ontology is a model for describing the world that consists of a set of types, properties, and relationship types. Exactly what is provided around these varies, but they are the essentials of an ontology. There is also generally an expectation that there be a close resemblance between the real world and the features of the model in an ontology.<ref>{{cite web |first=L. M. |last=Garshol |year=2004 |url=http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html#N773 |title=Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! Making sense of it all |access-date=13 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017174807/http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html#N773 |archive-date=17 October 2008 }}</ref>

In theory, an ontology is a "formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualisation".<ref name="TRG93">{{cite journal |first=Thomas R. |last=Gruber |author-link=Tom Gruber |date=June 1993 |title=A translation approach to portable ontology specifications |journal=[[Knowledge Acquisition]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=199–220 |doi=10.1006/knac.1993.1008 |s2cid=15709015 }}</ref> An ontology renders shared [[vocabulary]] and [[taxonomy]] which models a domain with the definition of objects and/or concepts and their properties and relations.<ref>{{cite web |first1=F. |last1=Arvidsson |first2=A. |last2=Flycht-Eriksson |url=http://www.ida.liu.se/~janma/SemWeb/Slides/ontologies1.pdf |title=Ontologies I |access-date=26 November 2008 |archive-date=17 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217030507/http://www.ida.liu.se/~janma/SemWeb/Slides/ontologies1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Ontologies are the structural frameworks for organizing information and are used in [[artificial intelligence]], the [[Semantic Web]], [[systems engineering]], [[software engineering]], [[biomedical informatics]], [[library science]], [[enterprise bookmarking]], and [[information architecture]] as a form of [[knowledge representation]] about the world or some part of it. The creation of domain ontologies is also essential to the definition and use of an [[enterprise architecture framework]].

=== Science or discipline?===

Authors such as Ingwersen<ref name="peteringwersen.info"/> argue that informatology has problems defining its own boundaries with other disciplines. According to Popper "Information science operates busily on an ocean of commonsense practical applications, which increasingly involve the computer ... and on commonsense views of language, of communication, of knowledge and Information, computer science is in little better state".<ref>Popper, Karl. (1973). [Objective Knowledge: an Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
] Information and Information Science in Context.</ref> Other authors, such as Furner, deny that information science is a true science.<ref>{{cite journal |id={{Project MUSE|579340}} |last1=Furner |first1=Jonathan |title=Information Science Is Neither |journal=Library Trends |date=2015 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=362–377 |doi=10.1353/lib.2015.0009 |hdl=2142/89820 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>