According to this Mappa Mundi article "In text data mining the researcher seeks relationships between the content of multiple texts and then sets about linking this information together to form a testable hypothesis about new information. The literature of medical research is a promising target for text data mining: a large and growing database of medical journal articles exists in digital format, and the formalized and detailed content delivery style of medical journal articles makes them a good subject for computerized TDM analysis. Because of the large number of journal articles published, it's unlikely that any one researcher could read (and remember) the contents of all of them. In theory, at least, TDM ought to be able to help researchers find possible linkages in published research findings, even across disciplines. (1999-12-05)