Hoda Homavandi; Yaghoub Norouzi; Shahed Rashidi
Abstract
IntroductionOntologies as tools for visualizing domain knowledge and improving information search and retrieval have attracted the attention of many researchers in different subject areas. One of the domains where the application of ontologies can be the subject of many researches is knowledge management, ...
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IntroductionOntologies as tools for visualizing domain knowledge and improving information search and retrieval have attracted the attention of many researchers in different subject areas. One of the domains where the application of ontologies can be the subject of many researches is knowledge management, while it has been less discussed so far. The aim of this research is the qualitative and quantitative analysis of studies related to the application of ontologies in the knowledge management domain in order to identify these applications the main subject areas and their aspects.
Literature ReviewReasons for creating ontologies include the ability to reuse knowledge, sharing a common understanding of the structure of information between human and software (machines), analyzing domain knowledge, describing basic concepts in a subject domain, and the relationship between them (Montenegro et al. 2012). Therefore, considering the application of ontology in knowledge engineering and since access to knowledge has a major contribution to the progress of societies in today's world, the way of accessing and managing this knowledge among the large amount of information is very important and challenging. Knowledge management is also one of the topics that is of interest to researchers in various fields. Ontologies are one of the tools for organizing and managing knowledge. Despite the significant number context-based research on the use of these tools and the use of ontologies in knowledge management, lack of connection and understanding between researches in the field of ontology and applied knowledge management will cause knowledge management to be deprived of these tools. Therefore, the following research aims to analyze the studies in the field of ontology application in knowledge management. As it mentioned, most of the research in this field is context-based. The fields of education (Yang, Chen, & Shao, 2004), architecture (Anumba et al, 2008), agriculture (Zheng et al., 2012) and medicine (Zhou et al., 2020) are among the context-based researches in the field of application of ontology in knowledge management. Moreover, identifying the obstacles and challenges of using these tools in the context of knowledge management is another aspect that has not been addressed in the researches. Therefore, this study focuses on researches that are generally discussed applications and methods the use of ontology in knowledge management and research about the application of ontologies in different domains knowledge management or the construction and implementation of ontologies in the field of knowledge management have been ignored. This research can provide a comprehensive view of the applications and capacities that the use of ontologies provides for knowledge management.
MethodologyThe present study is a descriptive-analytical one. It was conducted using Pettigrew and Roberts 's (2008) systematic review method. In order to analyze the texts and visualize the findings, the content analysis method using MaxQDA and Data Trapper software was applied. Accordingly, after formulating research questions and search keywords, inclusion and exclusion criteria, selected databases were searched. At first stage, 419 studies were retrieved, after reviewing and considering the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 47 studies were selected for final analysis. The results of the analysis of the studies were presented in the form of tables and graphs.
ResultsIn addition to presenting the frequency of subjects, the citation statusof studies and subject trends in this field over time, analysis of studies in the field of application of ontologies in knowledge management revealed that these researches include five main topics as follows: construction and creation of ontology in the field of knowledge management, design of knowledge management systems based on ontology, use of ontology in the process of knowledge management, role and synergy of ontologies in knowledge management and challenges and usage guidelines. From ontology in knowledge management.
DiscussionAnalysis of 47 selected studies showed that Chinese researchers have studied this issue more than others. In Iran, the number of studies was significant compared to other countries. Moreover, the analysis of the studies indicates that in most of the studies in this field, analytical-descriptive approach has been applied. In terms of the year of conducting the research, most of the studies in this field were conducted in 2009. In Iran the first study was conducted in 2008 and other studies were conducted since 2019. Accordingly, most of the research in the field of the application of ontologies in knowledge management are analytical-descriptive, and case and experimental studies and literature review are in the next in terms of frequency, which have used tools such as texts, questionnaires, and the Delphi technique. Thematic analysis of the studies shows that the most focus of these research is on presenting the methods, models, frameworks and approaches that are used to build ontologies in the field of knowledge management. A number of these studies also dealt with the construction and development of ontology in the field of knowledge management. Ontology based knowledge management systems, the application of ontology in different parts of the knowledge management process, the role and synergy of ontology in knowledge management, and the guides and challenges in the construction of ontologies in the context of knowledge management are other major topics in these studies. The combination of the results of keyword analysis and the identification of the changing process of subjects over the time can confirm the relative superiority of technical aspects in the design and construction of ontologies in the field of knowledge management.
ConclusionAlthough studies have addressed different dimensions of the application of ontology in knowledge management as a helpful tool to facilitate different stages of knowledge management processes, the focus of most studies on theoretical dimensions has caused a lack of connection and real practical understanding of applying ontology in this field. In this study, the emphasis is on the general ontologies of knowledge management, but the high importance of user-oriented studies, understanding the environment and the user community in design, construction and use of technologies, including ontology and their impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge management, require researchers to focus on these non-technical issues, and the results of this review show a significant lack of focus on these issues.
