Such a comprehensive project of logic documentation includes several dimensions, each functionally related to the project by a unifying central idea of a comprehensive, structured documentation. The initial major effort in this is the systematic overview of the publications in this area.
Documentation
The purpose of the documentation is to secure the existing inventory of scientific findings of mathematical logic from its beginnings and to represent its historical development. The Bibliography of Logic created by this project is now nearly completed and includes approximately 100,000 literary references. As a result of its comprehensive scope, the documentation constitutes a reference source of scientific results in this research area.
The exploitation of the documentation for current research, however, demands professional preparation of the materials. The metadata concept developed for this purpose allows, in particular, a criterion for the accuracy of bibliographic references and forms the basis for a data network. The further development to an Information system works against a purely historically oriented view and is designed for the current research practices.
Content Development
Documentation first must determine the dimension or scope of the area. The far-reaching claim of structuring requires that documentation not be confined to the pure collection of literature. The top level of a content based access to literature is formed by grouping and the systematization of the major research topics and research areas in a coherent form as well as including the relevant positions, issues and paradigms. This is an original intellectual exercise that leads to a classification system. It provides an orientation point in the research landscape and reflects how experts view and represent their subject as a whole. The classification system encodes the research interests shared by the scientific community and designates them in the form of conceptual arrangements that are beyond definitional relationships. In this way, a classification system is not characterized by purely definitional dependencies of the terms included, but rather by specific research interests.
As a purely intellectual effort, the proper creation of a classification system independent of the underlying data material is not possible; it requires a representative overview of the relevant subject area on which the division of articles can then be manifested and stored. The prerequisite for the creation of a logical system was given in a unique way on the basis of the Bibliography of Logic. The classification system was designed by international renowned experts, editors of the Bibliography of Logic, on the basis of the documentation provided..
Since the classification system is based on an interpretative effort, any evaluation of the descriptions of the research activities expressed therein must rely exclusively on the testing, especially, on the acceptance by scientific community. The organizational structure for logic developed in the mathematical logic project has finally been included into the widely accepted and comprehensive Mathematical Subject Classification System MSC 2000 (updated as MSC 2010) constituting the sub-classification system 03X therein.
Initially intended for its own use, the research center has performed additional refinements to the classification system in the form of annotations, which present a more accurate specification of the underlying intentions and provide more exact definitions of terminology.
The completion of a thorough and consistent classification even of older papers establishes a connection to the research areas as well coordinates the documented publications within the overall research activities. This allows, in particular, an insight into the development and dynamics of individual research areas as mentioned in relevant studies.
Information system
Information may be accessed through the Homepage of the Dokumentation Center for Logik.