Reviews recent research into the use of hierarchic agglomerative clustering methods for document retrieval. The topics discussed include the calculation of interdocument similarities, algorithms used to implement clustering methods on large databases, validity testing of document hierarchies, appropriate search strategies, and other applications…

Examines the use of various statistical techniques for generating domain-oriented multiword vocabulary terms for natural language database systems. Conclusions show the vocabulary clustering effect should be considered when making significance calculations and that a simple ratio of subject matter relative frequency to total sample relative…

Describes a study of medical students that was conducted to evaluate measures of performance on factual searches of INQUIRER, a full-text database in microbiology. Measures relating to recall, precision, search term overlap, and efficiency are discussed; reliability and construct validity are considered; and implications for future research are…