A project of the University of Pittsburgh University Center for International Studies, made possible with funding from the US Institute of Peace
At its core, the Thesaurus is meant to provide standardized terminology in the field of peace and security studies. As a controlled vocabulary, the Thesaurus addresses the information retrieval needs of the international affairs community by providing context for search terms. Originally, the Thesaurus was structured as a single hierarchy that focused on geopolitical/military aspects of the field. In 2004, this scope was expanded to incorporate vocabulary that describes Rule of Law issues within international security and the Roles that individuals, organizations, and states play in the field. To accomodate this broadening of scope, the thesaurus was divided into 4 mini-vocabularies: General International Relations, Rule of Law Issues, Geographic Place Names, and Roles.
The Peace and Security Studies Thesaurus addresses various subject areas that form the inter-disciplinary field concerned with factors that impact international systems, including the sovereignty of their members, involving the use, threat, and control of force. Examples include:
The Thesaurus is intended for use by any organization in the field of peace and security studies.
A controlled vocabulary is simply a set of terms that is used by indexers to describe the content of documents, and by searchers to describe their information need. The objectives of a controlled vocabulary are to ensure that indexers and searchers represent subject matter consistently, and to bring like material together. Terms that are synonymous or nearly synonymous are indexed under a preferred term, and references are made from alternate terms. Related terms are also identified to facilitate a comprehensive search. A formal structure is usually imposed on the controlled vocabulary (Aitchison & Gilchrist, 1987; Lancaster, 1986).
The most effective type of controlled vocabulary for electronic databases is the thesaurus. A thesaurus has a formal organization , which makes explicit hierarchical relationships (broader terms or BT’s or narrower terms or NT’s), identifies non-hierarchical relationships (related terms or RT’s), and controls synonymous relationships (Use or U and Use For or UF). The example below shows a typical thesaurus entry:
Terrorism
Term Added: 11/20/2001
Last Modified: 04/25/2006
Scope Note:
Narrower Terms:
Related Terms:
Because thesaural descriptors are linked to form comprehensive concepts when a search is performed, they are flexible and support both Boolean and ranked output retrieval. Use of a standard thesaurus format will ensure its compatibility with existing database structures.
The Thesaurus is extremely granular and therefore quite flexible. This flexibility, however, can introduce problems in applications designed around a small set of categories. To facilitate use of the thesaurus across multiple applications, terms can be categorized according to multiple classification schemes. At present, the only classification scheme that has been added is the INPROL Taxonomy for organizing materials at that project's web portal. As other classifications are added, it will be possible to map a concept across multiple applications.
The Thesaurus is displayed in a hierarchical and alphabetical fashion. The subject listing clearly presents the relationship among terms.
Currently, the thesaurus is exclusively in English.
The Thesaurus is constructed and maintained using TermChoir, a web-enabled database package for thesaurus construction and maintenance.
Overall responsibility for the project rests with Mark Weixel, Director of Informatics for University of Pittsburgh's University Center for International Studies.
The thesaurus' original development and its application to the IAC Net database was conducted by Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs) in the Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) and Ph.D. programs in the Department of Library and Information Science, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Edie Rasmussen supervised the GSRs on this initial stage of the project. A former Professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences and now the Director of the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Rasmussen has extensive teaching and research expertise in indexing and information retrieval.
The subject content of the thesaurus' first edition was heavily influenced by a committee comprised of William Kincade, American University; Lloyd J. Dumas, University of Texas, Dallas; Thomas F. Allen, University of Pittsburgh, Claire L. Piana, University of Pittsburgh; and Michael Brenner, University of Pittsburgh.
In 2004, the Thesaurus was reviewed and expanded with an eye toward application to new federated projects that deal with post-conflict stability and the rule of law issues arising in such circumstances. An example of such a project is the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law. To accommodate the review, a new panel of subject experts was recruited. Again, technical expertise was provided by faculty and students of the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences.
Dr. Sherry Koshman supervised the GSRs during the expansion. An Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, Dr. Koshman's background includes research and teaching on retrieval, search analysis, and search visualization.
Term review and expansion was handled in the following manner: the expert committee recommended electronic and print materials that were "exemplars" of the field. These were then analyzed using a combination of technical and manual techniques to come up with a list of terms. The experts then voted on terms, explained relationships, and proposed scope notes.
The review committee was comprised of Clive Baldwin; David Ettinger, George Washington University; Johann Klaus, Frederick Lorenz, University of Washington; Susan Nan, George Mason University; Randy Ostrander, Ridgefield Police; Margarita Studemeister, International Committee of the Red Cross; and Craig Zelizer, Alliance for Conflict Transformation.
The Thesaurus contains 1330 subject terms, including descriptors, and cross-references.