<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Articles JournalTitle="Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology">
  <Article>
    <Journal>
      <PublisherName>Tehran University of Medical Sciences</PublisherName>
      <JournalTitle>Journal of Biostatistics and Epidemiology</JournalTitle>
      <Issn>2383-4196</Issn>
      <Volume>7</Volume>
      <Issue>2</Issue>
      <PubDate PubStatus="epublish">
        <Year>2021</Year>
        <Month>07</Month>
        <Day>04</Day>
      </PubDate>
    </Journal>
    <title locale="en_US">Advantages and Challenges of Information Fusion Technique for Big Data Analysis:  Proposed Framework</title>
    <FirstPage>193</FirstPage>
    <LastPage>220</LastPage>
    <AuthorList>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Elham</FirstName>
        <LastName>Nazari</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Department of Medical Informatics, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Rizwana</FirstName>
        <LastName>Biviji</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Science of Healthcare Delivery, College of Health Solutions, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA.</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Amir</FirstName>
        <LastName>Farzin</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Department of Computer Engineering, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Parnian</FirstName>
        <LastName>Asgari</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Department of Health and Information Technology, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran</affiliation>
      </Author>
      <Author>
        <FirstName>Hamed</FirstName>
        <LastName>Tabesh</LastName>
        <affiliation locale="en_US">Department of Medical Informatics, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.</affiliation>
      </Author>
    </AuthorList>
    <History>
      <PubDate PubStatus="received">
        <Year>2021</Year>
        <Month>04</Month>
        <Day>13</Day>
      </PubDate>
      <PubDate PubStatus="accepted">
        <Year>2021</Year>
        <Month>05</Month>
        <Day>11</Day>
      </PubDate>
    </History>
    <abstract locale="en_US">Introduction: Recently, with the surge in the availability of relevant data in various industries, the use of&#xA0;Information Fusion technique for data analysis is increasing. This method has several advantages, such as&#xA0;increased accuracy, and the use of meaningful information. In addition, there are certain challenges,&#xA0;including the impact of data type and analytical method on results. The goal of this study is to propose a&#xA0;framework for introducing the advantages and classifying the challenges of this technique.&#xA0;
&#xD;

Method: We conducted a review of articles published between January 1960 and December 2017 for the&#xA0;design stage and from January 2018 to December 2018 for the evaluation stage. Articles were identified&#xA0;from various databases such as Science Direct, IEEE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, using&#xA0;the keywords decision fusion, information fusion, and symbolic fusion. We report the advantages and&#xA0;challenges of the methodologies described in these articles. Analysis was conducted in accordance with&#xA0;PRISMA guidelines.&#xA0;
&#xD;

Results: A total of 132 articles were identified in the design stage and 90 articles were identified in the&#xA0;evaluation stage. Categories within the framework for challenges include &#x201C;hardware and software&#xA0;requirements for processing and maintaining the process&#x201D;, &#x201C;data&#x201D; and &#x201C;data analysis method&#x201D;. The&#xA0;categories for advantages include &#x201C;value modeling&#x201D;, &#x201C;preferable management of uncertainty and&#xA0;variability&#x201D;, &#x201C;excellent decision making&#x201D;, &#x201C;comprehensive interpretation and representation&#x201D;, &#x201C;data&#xA0;management&#x201D; and &#x201C;simplicity of infrastructure&#x201D;. Our results indicate using these two frameworks with 95%&#xA0;Confidence interval.&#xA0;
&#xD;

Conclusion: An overall understanding of the advantages and challenges of the information fusion technique&#xA0;could act as a guide for the researcher for the correct usage of this technique&#xA0;&#xA0;</abstract>
    <web_url>https://jbe.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jbe/article/view/479</web_url>
  </Article>
</Articles>
