This paper examines representative research in information science and compares its designs to an abstract ideal of the experimental research design. Threats to validity of conclusions are highlighted, including history, maturation, testing, instrumentation, statistical regression, selection biases, experimental mortality, and selection-maturation…

Discusses the goals of French academic research policy in the field of information science, emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Areas of research highlighted include communication, telecommunications, co-word analysis in scientific and technical documents, media, and statistical methods for the study of social sciences. (LRW)

Describes experiment designed to assess information value for individual searchers in realistic search environment. Included in data analysis are comparison of two alternative retrieval methods, evaluation of how well humans are able to estimate document relevance, and investigation of value function components (features and coefficients) and…

Organizes, describes, and evaluates management information systems research from 1981 to 1985 to provide an understanding of what constitutes management information systems research and to indicate areas for future research. (210 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes a citation analysis of physics, engineering, and sociology literature which was designed to determine if there were any differences in conceptual referencing patterns. The research methodology is described and suggestions for further study are offered. (Author/LRW)

Examines methodologies underlying studies which measure the information economy and considers their applicability and limitations for analyzing policy issues concerning libraries and library networks. Two studies provide major focus for discussion: Porat's "The Information Economy: Definition and Measurement" and Machlup's…

Presents results of five experiments on human information-seeking behavior in different online information-seeking environments which studied search strategies and assessed information value in realistic search environments. A conceptual model of how humans value information is presented. Empirical and modeling results are considered for…

Proposes a method for correcting spelling errors found in electronic documents which is derived from a logical analysis of the problem. Similarity relations and character string matching are discussed, the use of PROLOG is described, suggestions for further research are made, and a literature review is included. (47 references) (Author/LRW)

Describes study of manual and experimental automated circulation systems in a university library in Nigeria. Data were collected for eight circulation activities in order to calculate the direct labor costs of circulating a book on each system. Automated system's book circulation costs were higher although direct labor costs were less. (MBR)

A rudimentary description of Markov Chains is presented in order to introduce its use to describe and to predict authors' movements among subareas of the discipline of ethnomusicology. Other possible applications are suggested. (Author)

Reports on a controlled experiment that compared cloze procedure (human tendency to complete a familiar but not quite finished pattern) and comprehension quiz as measures of computer program understanding. Program comprehension measures, experimental materials, administration, and results are highlighted. Twenty-six references and sample questions…

Results of an investigation designed to determine whether the impact factor or the immediacy index--two derivative measures of citation analysis--provide useful insights into qualitative relationships among scientific journals indicate that neither measure is significant. (MBR)

Views information as residual or catalytic form of energy which regulates other forms of energy in natural and artificial systems. Parallel human information processing (production systems, algorithms, heuristics) and information measurement are discussed. Suggestions for future research in area of parallel information processing include a matrix…

A method for assessing scientific performance based on relationships displayed numerically in published documents is proposed and illustrated using published documents in pediatric oncology for the period 1979-1982. Contributions of a major clinical investigations group, the Childrens Cancer Study Group, are analyzed. Twenty-nine references are…

Examines relationships among the parameters of the Zipf size-frequency distribution as well as its sampling properties. Highlights include its importance in bibliometrics, tables for the sampling distribution of the maximal value of a finite Zipf distribution, and an approximation formula for confidence intervals. (Author/LRW)