Information structuring and its implementations on a Research Decision Support System

The authors discuss decision making processes from the viewpoint of information structuring. They consider the processes in a wide sense, and argue the need for advanced decision support systems which aid decision makers’ information structuring throughout the processes. The authors propose a Research Decision Support System (RDSS), which is a prototype for such systems and supports decision making on research and development (R&D). In RDSS, pieces of information for a particular R&D field are classified as needs and seeds for the field, and are related and stored in databases. Their relations are summarized by R&D maps which present holistic models of the field and support selection of strategic paths of R&D. The authors describe the present implementations of RDSS, and present the results of experiments. The functions of RDSS are general ones for information structuring, and can be used for constructing advanced decision support systems for areas other than R&D.