Analyzes different kinds of reformulations used in information retrieval systems where full text databases are accessed through natural language queries. Tests of these reformulations on large full text databases managed by the Syntactic and Probabilistic Indexing and Retrieval of Information in Texts (SPIRIT) system are described, and an expert…

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…

A hierarchical extension to the American National Standard for Bibliographic Information Interchange on Magnetic Tape is defined and described. The accommodation of the extension within the existing standard is discussed, modifications to the existing standard are proposed, and applications of the hierarchical format are presented. (21 references)…

Discussion of research into information and text retrieval problems highlights the work with automatic natural language processing (NLP) that is reported in this issue. Topics discussed include the occurrences of nominal compounds; anaphoric references; discontinuous language constructs; automatic back-of-the-book indexing; and full-text analysis.…

Summarizes various linguistic approaches proposed for document analysis in information retrieval environments. Topics discussed include syntactic analysis; use of machine-readable dictionary information; knowledge base construction; the PLNLP English Grammar (PEG) system; phrase normalization; and statistical and syntactic phrase evaluation used…

Proposes an information retrieval model in which documents are characterized by a simple probability measure on the set of index terms, and describes two retrieval strategies, one based on utility theory and the other on information theory. The discussion covers experimental findings of retrieval effectiveness and insights into fundamental…

Discusses the current status and future expectations of scientific and technical numeric databases. A bibliography provides resources for background readings, directories or listings of compilations, and subject specific discussions. Numeric database addresses and a summary of available databases are also provided. (CLB)

Describes SCISOR (System for Conceptual Information Summarization, Organization and Retrieval), a prototype intelligent information retrieval system that extracts useful information from large bodies of text. It overcomes limitations of linguistic coverage by applying a text processing strategy that is tolerant of unknown words and gaps in…

Discusses the use of computer information retrieval (on-line electronic search methods). Examines advantages and disadvantages of on-line searching versus manual searching. Offers questions to help in the decision to purchase and use on-line searching with students. (MS)

Reports the results of a qualitative analysis of cocited author retrieval performance. The discussion covers the effects on recall of first author only access and the ability of cocited author search techniques to enhance retrieval performance. Multiple author frequency data is also presented. (14 references) (CLB)

Highlights semantic links and shows how the semantic content of hypertext links can be used for information retrieval. Discussion includes indexing and retrieval algorithms that exploit link content and node content; retrieval strategies exploiting semantic links, including conventional retrieval and constrained spreading activation techniques;…

Describes the SAPHIRE (Semantic and Probabilistic Heuristic Information Retrieval Environment) that was developed to identify optimal approaches to indexing, retrieval, and evaluation of information retrieval systems in the biomedical domain. Six evaluation studies that have been done with SAPHIRE are summarized and future challenges are…

Discusses the graphical user interface (GUI) online public access catalog (OPAC), a user interface that uses images to represent options. Topics include user interface design for information retrieval; designing effective bibliographic displays, including subject headings; two design principles; and what GUIs can bring to OPACs. (LRW)

Discusses end-user searching in Boolean information retrieval systems considers the role of search intermediaries and proposes a model of user preferences that incorporates a user's profile. Highlights include document representation; information queries; document output ranking; calculating user profiles; and selecting documents for a local…

Discusses the use of natural language captions versus content analysis for retrieving multimedia data such as pictures. Topics addressed include using caption syntax; additional inferences from captions; supercaptions; integrating content analysis; and results of experiments on an expert system with pictures. (Contains 11 references.) (LRW)