ResearchIQ: Design of a Semantically Anchored Integrative Query Tool.

An important factor influencing the pace of research activity is the ability of researchers to discover and leverage heterogeneous resources. Usually, researcher profiles, laboratory equipment, data samples, clinical trials, and other research resources are stored in heterogeneous datasets in large organizations. Emergent semantic web technologies provide novel approaches to discover, annotate and consequently link such resources. In this manuscript, we describe the design of Research Integrative Query (ResearchIQ) tool, a semantically anchored resource discovery platform that facilitates semantic discovery of local and publically available data through a single web portal designed for researchers in the biomedical informatics domain within The Ohio State University.