Record linkage in data warehousing: State-of-the-art analysis and research perspectives

While a wide collection of research proposals and results in the context of record linkage for relational databases exists, the problem of effectively supporting record linkage in Data Warehousing is still an open research challenge. Contrary to this actual trend, record linkage plays a critical role in such research context, with particular regard to the ETL (Extraction- Transformation-Loading) layer of Data Warehousing platforms. Hence, it is natural to propose a critical review of research contributions focused on record linkage in Data Warehousing, along with discussion on possible research perspectives, which is the main contribution of this paper. © 2011 IEEE.