Semantic metadata annotation: tagging medline abstracts for enhanced information access

The object of this study is to develop methods for automatically annotating the argumentative role of sentences in scientific abstracts. Working from Medline abstracts, we classified sentences into four major argumentative roles: objective, method, result, conclusion. The idea is that if the role of each sentence can be marked up, then this metadata can be used during information retrieval to seek for particular types of information such as novelty, conclusions, methodologies, aims/goals of a scientific piece of work.