Scientific information retrieval system: A new approach to research data management

This manuscript is addressed particularly to the researcher and data analyst faced with the need to manage and analyze data sets in a form of complex file. This complex file arises when data is collected from multiple sources over a period of time. In the health sciences, studies of this nature are quite common, examples being large multi-centered clinical trials, patient record studies, health surveys, patient monitoring studies, etc.. Such studies generally contain variable amounts of data on each case as a result of missing examinations, a variable number of visits to the clinic, etc.. The result of such situations is a case-oriented hierarchical file. Similarly, such a case can arise in the social sciences, as in surveying a family or a school population; or in economics, as in analyzing an industry or an entire country. SIR was designed specifically for the management of such complex hierarchical data. Also, SIR adopted the language of the most widely-used statistical system presently in existence, namely that of SPSS(1), which is easily learned by those who are not yet familiar with it.