The literature provides a wide range of techniques to assess and improve the quality of data. Due to the diversity and complexity of these techniques, research has recently focused on defining methodologies that help the selection, customization, and application of data quality assessment and improvement techniques. The goal of this article is to provide a systematic and comparative description of such methodologies. Methodologies are compared along several dimensions, including the methodological phases and steps, the strategies and techniques, the data quality dimensions, the types of data, and, finally, the types of information systems addressed by each methodology. The article concludes with a summary description of each methodology

One of the fundamental principles of the database approach is that a database allows a nonredundant, unified representation of all data managed in an organization. This is achieved only when methodologies are available to support integration across organizational and application boundaries.Methodologies for database design usually perform the design activity by separately producing several schemas, representing parts of the application, which are subsequently merged. Database schema integration is the activity of integrating the schemas of existing or proposed databases into a global, unified schema.The aim of the paper is to provide first a unifying framework for the problem of schema integration, then a comparative review of the work done thus far in this area. Such a framework, with the associated analysis of the existing approaches, provides a basis for identifying strengths and weaknesses of individual methodologies, as well as general guidelines for future improvements and extensions.

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are widely used in several areas of computer wience, and their effectiveness is thoroughly recognized. One of the main qualities requested for them is readability; this is especially, but not exclusively, true in the area of information systems, where diagrams are used to model data and functions of the application. Up to now, diagrams have been produced manually or with the aid of a graphic editor; in both caws placement of symbols and routing of connections are under responsibility of the designer. The goal of the work is to investigate how readability of diagrams can be achieved by means of automatic tools. Existing results in the literature are compared, and a comprehensive algorithmic approach to the problem is proposed. The algorithm presented draws graphs on a grid and is suitable for both undirected graphs and mixed graphs that contain as subgraphs hierarchic structures. Finally, several applications of a graphic tool that embodies the aforementioned facility are shown.