Controlled vocabularies provide a way to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval, particularly in metadata. They are used in subject indexing schemes, subject headings, thesauri and taxonomies. Controlled vocabulary schemes mandate the use of predefined, authorised terms that have been preselected by the designer of the vocabulary.
#30788
ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English (formerly AECMA Simplified English) is a specification for writing aircraft documentation. The principles can be applied to all industry sectors. ASD-STE100 provides a set of writing rules and a dictionary of words and their meanings. It has a limited number of words; a limited number of clearly defined meanings for each word; a limited number of parts of speech for each word; a set of rules for writing text. This article outlines the standard, and shows how it helps to prevent ambiguity in text.
Unwalla, Mike. ISTC (2004). Articles>Writing>Minimalism>Controlled Vocabulary
#25001
Better Search Engine Design: Beyond Algorithms
Search engine accuracy is important, but convenience may be more important than squeezing the last few ounces of performance out of your system. Peter Van Dijck demonstrates simple but effective query analysis, best bets, and controlled vocabularies -- tools to make your search engines more effective.
Van Dijck, Peter. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Articles>Web Design>Search>Controlled Vocabulary
#23072
Beyond Bookmarks: Schemes for Organizing the Web
A clearinghouse of web sites that have applied or adopted standard classification schemes or controlled vocabularies to organize or provide enhanced access to Internet resources.
McKiernan, Gerry. Iowa State University (2003). Resources>Directories>Information Design>Controlled Vocabulary
#23496
Controlled Language - Risks and Side Effects
Controlled Language (CL) is a controversial issue for linguists, editors, readers, but also for firms. Costs, marketing and sales figures are at stake. Why did I select 'risks and side effects', from the numerous problems involved, for my contribution? I am convinced that CL will be successful because positive / financial arguments prevail. Consequently, we will have to avail ourselves of CL, and identify and realize the risks involved and potential vicious side effects.
Janowski, Wladyslaw. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#23476
Controlled Language and Translation Memory Technology: A Perfect Match to Save Translation Cost
It goes without saying that controlled language makes it easier not only to understand a text, but also to translate it into another language, thereby reducing translation cost. This positive effect can be even more increased by the use of professional translation tools. By "translation tools", I do not mean machine translation systems such as Logos or Systran, but rather terminology database and translation memory applications. Typical examples of such tools are MultiTerm '95 Plus and Translator's Workbench.
Brockmann, Daniel. TC-FORUM (1997). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#25310
Controlled Languages in Industry
A Controlled Language is a form of language with special restrictions on grammar, style, and vocabulary usage. Typically, the restrictions are placed on technical documents, including instructions, procedures, descriptions, reports, and cautions. One might consider formal written English to be the ultimate Controlled Language: a form of English with restricted word and grammar usages, but a standard too broad and too variable for use in highly technical domains. Whereas formal written English applies to society as a whole, CLs apply to the specialized sublanguages of particular domains.
Wojcik, Richard H. and James E. Hoard. Oregon Health and Science University (2005). Articles>Language>Technical Editing>Controlled Vocabulary
#20897
Controlled Vocabularies: A Glosso-Thesaurus 
'There is a singular lack of vocabulary control in the field of controlled vocabularies,' Bella Hass Weinberg, professor of library science at St. John's University in New York, is fond of saying. To help you cut through the maze of verbiage often found in this field, we have created a glossary of terms.
Fast, Karl, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#27721
A controlled vocabulary makes a database easier to search. Since we have many different ways of describing concepts, drawing all of these terms together under a single word or phrase in a database makes searching the database more efficient as it eliminates guess work. However, arriving at this efficiency requires consistency on the part of the individual indexing the database and the use of pre-determined terms.
ControlledVocabulary.com. Resources>Content Management>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#21280
Creating a Controlled Vocabulary
You have probably heard information architects discussing the benefits of their latest taxonomy project and how you should be implementing one. But how, you might wonder, can you get started? In the next installment about Controlled Vocabularies, our authors go into detail about one methodology.
Fast, Karl, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#22394
Data Collection for Controlled Vocabulary Interoperability: Dublin Core Audience Element
This paper outlines the assumptions, process and results of a pilot study of issues of interoperability among a set of seven existing controlled vocabulary schemes that make statements about the audience of an educational resource.
Tennis, Joseph T. ASIST (2002). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#23497
Different Types of Controlled Languages
There has been much discussion on the topic of Controlled Language (CL) in the past issues of TC-Forum. With several years of experience as a translator, as a trainer of Controlled English writing and translation post-editing, and as a developer of Machine Translation (MT) and Translation Memory (TM) systems, I would like to clarify some points that do not seem to have been presented in other articles. These points do not indicate all of the details of possible CL systems, but I hope that they open up the discussion to cover both past and recent developments in CL system and application research and development.
Allen, Jeff. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#26357
Firms that export to the USA are faced with the challenge of having to deliver accompanying TD that meets the requirements of that country. This is true not only in legal or safety-relevant terms, but also in terms of the language used. Production and translation of multi-lingual documentation are part of an overall process. Even while creating the source text, the technical writer must keep in mind the translation into the target language. Unambiguous rendering, consistency in the terminology, wording that is appropriate for the target group and reader-friendliness are some of the highest criteria which would justify the use of a controlled language.
Féneyrol, Christian. tekom (2005). (German) Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#26465
DTT: Deutscher Terminologie-Tag
Der DTT e.V. ist ein Forum für alle, die sich mit Terminologie und Terminologiearbeit beschäftigen. Er hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, durch Beratung und Koordination sowie durch die Veranstaltung von Symposien und Workshops zur Lösung fachlicher Kommunikationsprobleme beizutragen.
DTT. (German) Organizations>Language>Linguistics>Controlled Vocabulary
#23100
All About Facets & Controlled Vocabularies
The authors present a comprehensive overview of faceted classifications and controlled vocabularies.
Fast, Karl, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Search>Controlled Vocabulary
#27831
Free Terminology Management: The Better Alternative? 
In projects like 'Wikipedia', collaborative work also necessitates a common language. This was one of the reasons why a 'Wiktionary' or a 'Wikiwoerterbuch' came into being. Thus, the open source community has already set out to develop ideas for the management of terminology and its implementation.
Herwartz, Rachel. tekom (2006). Articles>Writing>Glossary>Controlled Vocabulary
#13659
Mind Your Phraseology! Using Controlled Vocabularies to Improve Findability
Many moons ago I waited tables. One day our manager came down to tell us that from now on we were to refer to our customers as 'guests.' We also were to refer to courses as 'first course' and 'second course.' Our chef was French, and found the American use of 'entrée' for the main course annoying--in French 'entree' means appetizer. This was my first experience with a controlled vocabulary. A controlled vocabulary is simply what it sounds like: a way to control the meaning of the vocabulary used as well as keeping track of the related terms.
Wodtke, Christina. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Writing>Controlled Vocabulary
#31175
Der Unterschied zwischen dem richtigen Wort und dem beinahe richtigen ist derselbe Unterschied wie der zwischen dem Blitz und einem Glühwürmchen.
Transline (2008). (German) Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#30733
Unexpected ROI (Return on Investment) from Terminology
Personal experience shows that all localization clients are interested in terminology--without exception. Only very large organizations, however, actually seem to maintain terminology databases.
Wittner, Janaina. Multilingual (2007). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#23842
What is a Controlled Vocabulary?
Finding the right words to communicate the message of your website can be one of the most difficult parts of developing it. Our authors guide you through the concepts behind a well-designed controlled vocabulary and discuss the pros and cons of its development.
Fast, Karl, Fred Leise and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>Writing>Controlled Vocabulary
#20739
A back-of-the-book index and a dictionary are both examples of metadata -- information about information contained in a document or database. Electronic examples of metadata include information encoded in the META tags on Web pages and 'controlled vocabularies,' hierarchical lists of subject terms developed to make commercial bibliographic databases easier to search.
Montague Institute Review (1998). Articles>Knowledge Management>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#23499
Writer's View of Using a Controlled Language
While the benefits of using a controlled language are clear from a business perspective (reduced translation costs, standardized phrases, reduced potential for misinterpretation), applying it can be a challenge when writing even simple service procedures.
Muldoon, Donna. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Language>Localization>Controlled Vocabulary
#32234
What Is A Controlled Vocabulary?
A controlled vocabulary is a way to insert an interpretive layer of semantics between the term entered by the user and the underlying database to better represent the original intention of the terms of the user.
Leise, Fred, Karl Fast and Mike Steckel. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#32320
Identifying Synonymous Concepts in Preparation for Technology Mining 
In this research, the development of a 'concept-clumping algorithm' designed to improve the clustering of technical concepts is demonstrated. The algorithm developed first identifies a list of technically relevant noun phrases from a cleaned extracted list and then applies a rule-based algorithm for identifying synonymous terms based on shared words in each term. An assessment of the algorithm found that the algorithm has an 89-91% precision rate, was successful in moving technically important terms higher in the term frequency list, and improved the technical specificity of term clusters.
Courseault Trumbach, Cherie. Journal of Information Science (2007). Articles>Knowledge Management>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#32325
Incremental Maintenance of Generalized Association Rules Under Taxonomy Evolution
Mining association rules from large databases of business data is an important topic in data mining. In many applications, there are explicit or implicit taxonomies (hierarchies) for items, so it may be useful to find associations at levels of the taxonomy other than the primitive concept level. Previous work on the mining of generalized association rules, however, assumed that the taxonomy of items remained unchanged, disregarding the fact that the taxonomy might be updated as new transactions are added to the database over time. If this happens, effectively updating the generalized association rules to reflect the database change and related taxonomy evolution is a crucial task. In this paper, we examine this problem and propose two novel algorithms, called IDTE and IDTE2, which can incrementally update the generalized association rules when the taxonomy of items evolves as a result of new transactions. Empirical evaluations show that our algorithms can maintain their performance even for large numbers of incremental transactions and high degrees of taxonomy evolution, and are faster than applying contemporary generalized association mining algorithms to the whole updated database.
Tseng, Ming-Cheng, Wen-Yang Lin and Rong Jeng. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Knowledge Management>Metadata>Controlled Vocabulary
#32334
RoMEO Studies 7: Creation of a Controlled Vocabulary to Analyse Copyright Transfer Agreements
This paper describes the process of creating a controlled vocabulary which can be used to systematically analyse the copyright transfer agreements (CTAs) of journal publishers with regard to self-archiving. The analysis formed the basis of the newly created Copyright Knowledge Bank of publishers' self-archiving policies. Self-archiving terms appearing in publishers' CTAs were identified and classified, then simplified, merged, and discarded to form a definitive list. The controlled vocabulary consists of three categories describing `what' can be self-archived, the `conditions' and the `restrictions' of self-archiving. Condition terms include specifications such as `where' an article can be self-archived; restriction terms include specifications such as `when' the article can be self-archived. Additional information on any of these terms appears in `free-text' fields. Although this controlled vocabulary provides an effective way of analysing CTAs, it will need continual review and updating in light of any major new additions to the terms used in publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies.
Jenkins, Celia, Charls Oppenheim, Steve Probets and Bill Hubbard. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Contracts>Controlled Vocabulary
