Retrieval of passages from documents rather than whole documents as units speeds both user access to wanted information and the screening out of false retrievals. Results of an experiment suggest that high quality passage retrieval services for scientists are now feasible. (Author/PF)

A generalized Keynesian "general equilibrium" model, derived largely from macropolitical considerations, is presented. (Author)

Reports on the results of the comparison made between a set of 430 articles published 1969-1971 and another set of 152 articles published in 1974. Overall findings indicate that while the amount of research reported is remaining stable, the methods have improved somewhat in 1974, as compared to earlier years. (Author)

Reviews what information and software sciences have thus far accomplished in search for empirical regularities and laws and examines what theories have been developed to explain and account for regularities and laws. Specific laws and theories of information highlighted are those of Zipf, Bradford, Lotka, Mandelbrot, and Simon. (Forty references)…

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 empirical importance of Shannon's Information Theory and its impact on information science, and investigates the principle of least effort as a means of broadening the empirical foundation of Information Theory. Listed are 14 sources. (Author/RBF)

Summarizes the status, organization, and themes of national research programs in information science. National plans from six countries are explored with respect to the planning organizations, content of national research plans, and desirable elements of a strategy for building the new discipline. (SW)

Discusses information production processes (IPP)--i.e., continuous mathematical models of production processes such as bibliographies, economic production processes, and social usages of words in a text--from the point of view of concentration theory. Gini's index is studied in the dual framework of IPPs. (27 references) (LRW)

Clarifies the idea of information by dividing the range of definitions into different parts and identifying several points of misunderstanding. The discussion covers the sciences relating to the concept of information; the nomenclatures of informatics, informatology, information science, and information sciences; and the multidimensional…

Four empirical laws of bibliometrics--anomalous number, Lotka's, Zipf's, and Bradford's--together with Laplace's "law of succession" and de Solla Price's cumulative advantage distribution are shown to be almost identical. A simple model shows that the frequency forms conform with inverse square law over appropriate interval. (Fifteen…

This essay distinguishes several different kinds of measures of information from each other, noting that differences between them show that our pretheoretical concept of information is multiply ambiguous. Incremental information, conditional information, transmitted information, expected information, and deductive information are discussed. Ten…

Argues for a definition of information based on the facts and data contained within scientific documents, and which are consistent with their conceptual interrelationships. The scope and limitations of the definition are discussed, and analyses of the information content of a scientific paper and an abstract are appended. References are provided.…

Research criteria are established for computer networks and ten areas of research are identified and briefly described. (RAA)

This overview of the writings of Manfred Kochen focuses on the pervasive theme of the growth, fragmentation, and integration of knowledge. Topics discussed include information science; the problem of fragmentation and specialization in the growth of knowledge; knowledge structures and cognitive science; and the application of Kochen's ideas to…

Defines the scope and significance of the field of informetrics and relates it to the earlier fields of bibliometrics and scientometrics. Practical and theoretical aspects of informetrics are discussed, including the development of mathematical models and the derivation of measures; and a brief overview of articles in this issue is included. (15…