Introduction
Database Systems and Knowledgebase Systems share many common principles. Data & Knowledge Engineering (DKE) stimulates the exchange of ideas and interaction between these two related fields of interest. DKEreaches a world-wide audience of researchers, designers, managers and users. The major aim of the journal is to identify, investigate and analyze the underlying principles in the design and effective use of these systems.DKE achieves this aim by publishing original research results, technical advances and news items concerning data engineering, knowledge engineering, and the interface of these two fields.
DKE covers the following topics:
1. Representation and Manipulation of Data & Knowledge: Conceptual data models. Knowledge representation techniques. Data/knowledge manipulation languages and techniques.
2. Architectures of database, expert, or knowledge-based systems: New architectures for database / knowledge base / expert systems, design and implementation techniques, languages and user interfaces, distributed architectures.
3. Construction of data/knowledge bases: Data / knowledge base design methodologies and tools, data/knowledge acquisition methods, integrity/security/maintenance issues.
4. Applications, case studies, and management issues: Data administration issues, knowledge engineering practice, office and engineering applications.
5. Tools for specifying and developing Data and Knowledge Bases using tools based on Linguistics or Human Machine Interface principles.
6. Communication aspects involved in implementing, designing and using KBSs in Cyberspace.
Knowledge engineering (KE) was defined in 1983 by Edward Feigenbaum, and Pamela McCorduck as follows:
KE is an engineering discipline that involves integrating knowledge into computer systems in order to solve complex problems normally requiring a high level of human expertise.
It is used in many computer science domains such