Decision tree analysis as a tool to optimise patent current awareness bulletins

Efficient setting up and maintenance of patent current awareness bulletins requires a good and constant dialogue between the information professionals and the end users. In view of giving the end users a chance to participate in the definition and optimisation of the patent bulletins, at the same time trying to simplify and rationalise as much as possible such a time consuming and labour-intensive task, the use of decision tree analysis was investigated, as a promising solution for determining a classification model capable of helping the information professional in assessing the desired level of detail to be assigned to each specific search profile.