This research project was motivated by results of earlier work (Katzer et al., 1982) on the overlap among document representations. In the earlier study, one representation used in the INSPEC database proved to perform unexpectedly well in comparison with other commonly used representations, such as controlled vocabulary or free-text terms from…

This review of abstracting policies used by database producers focuses on the degree to which these policies incorporate criteria vital for acceptability of abstracts for free-text searching. Each topic in abstracting policy (abstract type, length, content, and language) is examined to consider its effect on retrieval. (MBR)

Describes Information on Demand, an information broker that provides database and manual research on a fee for service basis, and accesses more than a dozen online systems. Relative strengths and weaknesses of particular systems and the criteria used to select databases and online vendors are identified and discussed. (CLB)

Applies a method for generating synopses of scientific fields to a co-citation cluster in field of cancer virology and describes the resulting specialty narrative. Implications of procedure for the cognitive processes involved in reviewing a field are discussed. Appended are lists of highly cited and citing papers. (35 references) (EJS)

The library's role in helping the social or behavioral scientist find bibliographic material is explained, and methods for the retrieval of bibliographic information are given. A table giving titles of relevant abstracts and indexes also provides time spans covered, frequencies of publication, disciplines for which each is useful. (Author/MLW)

This volume is divided into full formal paper manuscripts and 200-word abstracts of presentations that were made without submitting formal papers. The 73 papers presented in full represent recent research and applications in the field of computer-based instruction. They are organized into 13 sections by special interest group: (1) Computer-Based…