An investigation was made into the relative performance of the four major Chemical Abstracts Service magnetic tape data-bases. The overall retrieval efficiency of profiles searched against data-bases containing titles only, titles-plus-keywords, and titles-plus-digests, was calculated and these results are presented. (5 references) (Author/NH)

Examines general issues in conducting information retrieval research. Topics include the Okapi information retrieval system and its probabilistic model; the Cranfield projects, concerning recall and precision; the SMART project with its vector-space model; evaluation methodology, including laboratory evaluation of interactive systems; and…

The performance of a selective dissemination of information service based on computer scanning of Nuclear Science Abstracts tapes was compared with a current awareness service based on visual scanning of journals and reports by information specialists. (6 references) (Author/SJ)

Describes the development of a method for the evaluation and comparison of interactive information retrieval systems, which are based on the concept of a simulated work-task situation and the involvement of real end users. Highlights include real and simulated information needs; relevance assessments; and the dynamic nature of information needs.…

Considers classifications produced by application of single linkage, complete linkage, group average, and word clustering methods to Keen and Cranfield document test collections, and studies structure of hierarchies produced, extent to which methods distort input similarity matrices during classification generation, and retrieval effectiveness…

Presents criteria for an effective syntagmatic relator system and describes how conceptual syntagmatic relationships are expressed in natural language, commenting on the adequacy of such expressions for document retrieval systems. Only one type of expression, a gestalt structure, represented as a frame, conforms to the criteria. (Author/JKP)

Describes a genetic algorithm (GA) that assigns weights to query terms in a ranked-output document retrieval system. Experiments showed the GA often found weights slightly superior to those produced by deterministic weighting (F4). Many times, however, the two methods gave the same results and sometimes the F4 results were superior, indicating…

The effectiveness and efficiency of five index languages in the subject area of library and information science are compared. Full details of the text and retrieval results are presented. (17 references) (Author/NH)

Discusses the integration of scientific texts through the connection of documents and describes a computer model that can connect short documents. Information retrieval and artificial intelligence are discussed; a prototype system of the model is explained; and the model is compared to other computer models. (17 references) (LRW)

Two statistical models for estimating search time have been developed for the CA Condensates data base using the University of Georgia Text Search System. Comparative timings between the Chemical Abstracts Service search program and the University of Georgia search program are made for the Ca Condensates data base. (5 references) (Author/NH)

Describes the use of fixed-length character strings for controlling the size of indexing vocabularies in information retrieval systems. An evaluation of digram and trigram encoding, using the Cranfield document test collection, is presented and the results are compared with the hashing and the right-hand truncation of the terms. (Author)

Compares retrieval performance of the "MLA International Bibliography" and the "Annual Bibliography for English Language and Literature" when searching British, American, and postcolonial writers. Considers earlier studies, implications of results that show MLA retrieves more citations, and future research needs. (LRW)

Investigation of retrieval performance of controlled vocabulary derived from natural language terms in tables of contents and book indexes assumed that controlled vocabulary representative of users' queries should adequately represent documents' contents. Queries were indexed using Library of Congress Subject Headings (LSCH), Dewey Decimal…

Discussion of bibliometrics focuses on methods of predicting the number of new journals carrying relevant articles in the future, using both established parametric approaches and newer empirical methods. Parametric models and empirical Bayes models are used to compare examples using previous bibliographies compiled by Bradford and Kendall. (13…

Reviews the literature on Web search engines evaluation, with the aim of identifying some of the issues and problems in this rapidly changing field. Suggests that a standardized set of tools be developed for the evaluation of search engines so comparisons can be made between them more effectively and variations in performance of any given search…