Heurist
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. |
| Developer(s) | Digital Innovation Unit (DIU)[1] at The University of Sydney |
|---|---|
| Repository | |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Reference management, social bookmarking and database software |
| Website | Heurist |
Heurist has been developed since 2005 by the Digital Innovation Unit (DIU)[2] at the University of Sydney as a flexible eResearch database handling a wide variety of digital records. These may describe research objects such as formal bibliographic records,[1] web bookmarks, historical events, document annotations, images, contemporary stories and many others.[2]
Heurist is used by numerous projects, including:
- the Dictionary of Sydney
- the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Gallipoli project[3].[3]
- Early Agricultural Remnants and Technical Heritage (EARTH) Programme[4]
- PARADISEC (Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures)
- Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative[4]
- CenterNet[5]
Heurist aims to overcome the problems of research data stored in many separate incompatible databases by allowing the storage and interlinking of all research data, notes, annotations and digital attachments in a single web-accessible, shared database, while providing individual ‘views’ on this data and workgroup-owned and private areas for research in progress.[6][7]
Heurist is provided as a free service to academic users.
Methodology
Heurist is written in PHP and Javascript, and built on a flexible MySQL data structure. Record types are defined within the database rather than being hardcoded in the software or database structure. Heurist's search and on-the-fly reformatting capabilities (using XML output and XSLT translations through the Cocoon engine) allow data to be entered once and repurposed as required for use in analysis, in reports, in publications, in rich content web sites and in the classroom.
Heurist can store geographic and temporal data and generate maps and timelines without programming. There is a Javascript programming API - HAPI - allowing direct read and write access to Heurist records without a knowledge of its internal structures.
Other functions include a bookmarklet and a Firefox toolbar for capturing web references, WYSIWYG formatted text and threaded discussions within records, user and workgroup tags, personal and shared saved searches, workgroup ownership of records, group notifications, and blogging. A Firefox plugin provides synchronisation of records with Zotero.
Applicability
Heurist was conceived as a digital knowledgebase for managing heterogeneous and relatively unstructured data, in small to medium collections of (often textual) data such as those typically found in the Arts and Humanities, and in personal research spaces. It is not aimed at large, structured, homogeneous, numerical datasets typical of the Sciences.[8][9]
References
- ^ What’s new in the world of citation Management?
- ^ Blanke, Tobias (October 2008). "eResearch Australasia 2008". Ariadne. 57. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ About - Gallipoli: The First Day
- ^ Johnson, Ian (March 22–26, 2009), "Reinventing the ECAI Clearinghouse - A Web 2.0 Approach to Research Data", 37th Annual International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archeology (CAA) "Making History Interactive", Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, retrieved 2009-10-04
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameters:|coeditors=and|coauthors=(help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ centerNet
- ^ Berman, Merrick (March 2008), "Georeferencing Historical Placenames and Tracking Changes Over Time" (PDF), Georeferencing Workshop, Harvard University, retrieved 2009-10-08
{{citation}}:|format=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameters:|coeditors=and|coauthors=(help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Wynne, Martin (July 2008). "Digital Humanities 2008 Oulu, Finland, June 25-28th" (PDF). CLARIN Newsletter. 2: 7. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Heurist Help
- ^ Johnson, Ian (2008). "Mapping the fourth dimension: a ten year retrospective" (PDF). Archeologia e Calcolatori. 19: 31–44. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
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