Describes an experiment comparing the performance of an automatic full-text indexing software for personal computers (i.e., the Quick-Finder facility in WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows) with the human intellectual assignment of indexing terms to each document in a collection. Results are discussed in terms of ease of use, the time factor, and recall…

Reports a study that examined 10 collections of mainly scientific subject areas indexed using Farradane's system of relational indexing. It compared (1) the use of relations, (2) the use of concept types, (3) the cross sections (or shape) of abstracts, and (4) the properties of "nodes." Statistical tables and graphs are included.…

Describes a mechanism by which thesauri can be updated and maintained using citation, co-citation, and citation context analysis. When tested in 26 specialty areas of economics and sociology, the method generated a rich alternative terminology which experts found appropriate for describing those areas, and which compared favorably with Library of…

Describes a system based on a probabilistic inference network retrieval model that was used to study the retrieval effectiveness benefits of combining types of document and query information that are found in typical commercial databases and information services. Multiple document representations, multiple index representations, and multiple query…

This test of the Strategy of Unlimited Aliasing, an indexing method that places terms from several indexers for the same information object in one index, utilized bibliographic records from the ERIC, LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts), and ISA (Information Science Abstracts) databases. The test did not support the indexing method.…

Proposes split model for index term distribution in document set that uses rank function for high frequency terms and size function for low frequency terms; the point of transition is determined either empirically or by rule. Distributions to describe index term exhaustivity and term co-occurrence are considered briefly. (36 references) (EJS)

Empirical significance of document partitions is investigated as a function of index term-weight and similarity thresholds. Results show the same empirically preferred partitions can be detected by two independent strategies: an analysis of cluster-based retrieval analysis and an analysis of regularities in the underlying structure of the document…

In order to compare effects of input processing on information retrieval in three databases, 25 articles from a specific journal were examined. Tables and Venn diagrams show retrieval results from different manual and computer searches. The relation between document surrogates and subject matter of the documents is discussed. (SW)

Discussion of MEDLINE document indexing focuses on a study that assessed the use of free text, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and a variety of combination retrieval strategies. Prior research involving free text and controlled vocabularies is reviewed, and results of the study indicate that MeSH does have an important role in text retrieval.…

Reports an investigation conducted to improve the performance of SDI profiles in a large, complex data base that contains over a million references to scientific and technical literature, and uses full text indexing for retrieval. (Author/MBR)

Describes the two basic approaches to the calculation of term discrimination values for automatic indexing. The results of an experiment that investigated the differences between algorithms of these two approaches in terms of their impact on the discrimination value model are reported and discussed. (13 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes three criteria for evaluating indexing performances--quality, effectiveness, and consistency. The impracticality of effectiveness measurements and the unreliability of consistency measurements are discussed, and recommendations for assessing indexing quality are made. Two references are provided. (Author/BK)

Suggests a new ranking scheme especially adapted for hypertext environments in order to produce more effective retrieval results and still use Boolean search strategies. Topics include Boolean ranking schemes; single-term indexing and term weighting; fuzzy set theory extension; and citation indexing. (64 references) (Author/LRW)

Describes experiments that compared a new method for automatically analyzing semantic structures in text by statistical means with the standard vector space model. Findings indicate that combining both methods improved performance over either alone. The effects of other experimental variables on retrieval performance (term weighting, suffix…

Indexing and abstraction services in the social sciences are growing as primary sources. Results are that users become overwhelmed with the number of secondary services they use. Therefore, planning, coverage and overlap are examined in this research report with emphasis on reexamining secondary services and redefining users and users' needs.…