The logicist re-writing of texts, edited according to the SCD format, provides both fundamental rules and data bases. These rule bases are composed of interpretive propositions, along with the arguments from which they are drawn, whereas the data bases are the ensemble of facts mobilized by such arguments. Together, rule and data bases establish knowledge bases which comprise, according to the definition put forth by J-C. Gardin (Gardin et al. 1987):
• Factual knowledge ; it consists of observable facts proper to the topic under consideration and gathered for a specific scientific or technical inquiry ;
• Operational knowledge, so-called by virtue of its symmetry ; it is based on rules of reasoning some of which are particular to an intellectual domain, while others derive from a universe of reference (for example, the rules known as "common sense").
"Operational " and "factual " are two forms of knowledge which are mixed in order to produce or reproduce scientific constructs. By favoring their combined publication, it is possible to envision, for the first time in the human sciences, the constitution of knowledge bases. These will be elaborated in SCD-formatted monographs and articles. Constituting a knowledge bases is, from this point of view, an intermediate-stage project.
Current research on different modalities of scientific interrogation regarding such knowledge bases are central to the CNRS program known as, "Archival and Documentary Heritage, Contributions of the Information and Cognitive Sciences," under the direction of Nathalie Aussenac (IRIT, Toulouse).
