Semantic and contextual searching of knowledge repositories

A method for semantic and contextual searching over a knowledge repository to provide a record for a target concept based on a search context set by records of at least one related concept previously authored in a project, wherein the method comprises:

• creating a search query for each of at least one concept related to the target concept to form a search context, wherein the search query for each of the at least one related concept comprises at least one word derived from at least one record of that concept previously authored in the project;
• running the search query on a search index of a knowledge repository to identify at least one record of the at least one related concept for which the search query is created;
• fetching the at least one record of the target concept from the repository as a search result such that the at least one fetched record of the target concept is linked in the knowledge repository to a record of the at least one related concept returned as a result of running the search query on at least one record of the at least one related concept;
• and
• generating a rank for each fetched record of the target concept, wherein the rank is a recursive weighted mean of a product of a relevance rank returned from the search query on the search index for the at least one record of the related concept and a relevance score between the target concept and the at least one related concept;
• wherein the recursive weighted mean is computed by:
• adding the product of the relevance rank and the relevance score to a first variable to obtain a first sum;
• adding the relevance score to a second variable to obtain a second sum;
• dividing the first sum by the second sum to obtain the rank for a given fetched record;
• designating the first sum as the first variable;
• designating the second sum as the second variable;
• and
• based on previously executed designating steps, repeating the adding steps, the dividing step, and the designating steps for each subsequent fetched record until each fetched record has been ranked;
• wherein the relevance score between all pairs of concepts is computed by computing:
• for each concept, a textual similarity between all pairs of records of that concept wherein when the textual similarity exceeds a threshold, the pair of records are considered related;
• and
• for all pairs of concepts, a probability of a first pair of records of a first concept being related to each other, given that a second pair of records of a second concept is related, and respectively linked to the first pair of records of the first concept;
• wherein the steps are carried out by at least one computer device;
• wherein the knowledge repository comprises records from at least one past project;
• wherein the records from the at least one past project are defined in an information schema;
• and
• wherein two or more records produced in the at least one past project are deemed linked if their respective concepts are related in the information schema.