Computational Discovery of Scientific Knowledge

This chapter introduces the field of computational scientific discovery and provides a brief overview thereof, and discusses the components of scientific behavior, that is, the knowledge structures that arise in science and the processes that manipulate them.

Abstract

Abstract. This chapter introduces the field of computational scientific discovery and provides a brief overview thereof. We first try to be more specific about what scientific discovery is and also place it in the broader context of the scientific enterprise. We discuss the components of scientific behavior, that is, the knowledge structures that arise in science and the processes that manipulate them. We give a brief historical review of research in computational scientific discovery and discuss the lessons learned, especially in relation to work in data mining that has recently received substantial attention. Finally, we discuss the contents of the book and how it fits in the overall framework of computational scientific discovery. 1