The structure of science information

The organization of information within science can be investigated in a principled way through analysis of science language. The restricted use of language in science enables description of the informational structure of science and of particular subfields, with strong similarities to structures in mathematics and programming languages. This result rests on decades of research into the relation between form and content in language, based on an information-theoretic approach to the structure of information. Examples are provided from immunology and the social sciences. Practical applications include storage of science information in databases, indexing the literature, and identification and resolution of controversy.