This study used semantic relations expressed in text, particularly cause-effect relations, to improve information retrieval effectiveness. Investigated whether information obtained by matching cause-effect relations expressed in documents with the cause-effect relations expressed in users' queries can be used to improve retrieval results, in…

Presents a method for using the amount of semantic information in search-query terms as a weighting factor in constructing a fuzzy relation of resemblance between retrieved items in information retrieval online. Two tables, two figures, and a reference list accompany the text. (Author/JL)

Explores similarities or dissimilarities between citation-semantic and analytic indexing based on a study of records in the Science Citation Index and MEDLINE databases on antibiotic resistance in pneumonia. Concludes that disparate indexing terms may be an advantage for better recall and precision in information retrieval. (Contains 42…

Analyzes the formal properties, structural consequences, similarities, and differences of link indicators, brackets, and cohesion separators in the query languages employed in information retrieval. Eleven figures, a 32-item reference list, and appendices on Extended Backus Notation and the formal definition of the Formal Relevance Language are…

Reports on two experiments investigating the relationship between topical subject expertise and the assessment of relevance. Results indicate that topical subject expertise enhances effects of the semantic distance model (SDM), and that relevance assessment is a contingent, psychological phenomenon that is part of the human-perception task of…

Reports preliminary results of a research project that investigated the effectiveness of a new technique for information retrieval interfaces called colinked descriptors, based on the concept of cocited references in the field of bibliometrics. Examples of colinked descriptors from the "Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors" are presented.…

Explains how a competition-based connectionist model for diagnostic problem-solving is adapted to information retrieval. Topics include probabilistic causal networks; Bayesian networks; the neural network model; empirical studies of test collections that evaluated retrieval performance; precision results; and the use of a thesaurus to provide…

Describes a new method for automatic indexing and retrieval called latent semantic indexing (LSI). Problems with matching query words with document words in term-based information retrieval systems are discussed, semantic structure is examined, singular value decomposition (SVD) is explained, and the mathematics underlying the SVD model is…

Describes the Belief Function Model for automatic indexing and ranking of documents which is based on a controlled vocabulary and on term frequencies in each document. Belief Function Theory is explained, and the Belief Function Model is compared to the Standard Vector Space Model. (17 references) (LRW)

Describes two experiments that investigated the influence of textual factors on the perception of bibliographic records. Topics include index descriptors; term overlap; extent of semantic distance; direction of semantic distance; generic trees of descriptors; relevance perception; and implications for the design of information retrieval…

Presents an indexing and information retrieval method that, based on the vector space model, incorporates term dependencies and thus obtains semantically richer representations of documents. Highlights include term context vectors; techniques for estimating the dependencies among terms; term weights; experimental results on four text collections;…

Discusses latent semantic indexing (LSI); considers the high cost associated with the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the large term-by-document matrix that becomes a barrier for its application to scalable information retrieval; and shows that information filtering using level search techniques can reduce the SVD computation cost for LSI.…

Describes a study that investigated semantic relationships between citing and cited documents for a sample of document pairs in three journals in library and information science. Highlights include comparisons of Library of Congress classification numbers and subject descriptors; implications for collection development and relevance; and…

PRECIS, The Preserved Context Index System, is explained in detail. (AP)

Discusses automated information retrieval, focusing on statistical patterns expected of a pair of terms that are semantically related to each other, guided by text generation conceptualization. Examines how the tendency of a content bearing term to clump, as quantified by previously developed measures of term clumping, is influenced by the…