The mathematical theory of measurement is used to construct a framework for the evaluation of information retrieval strategies. (Author)

Reports the results of experiments in document clustering using three well-known test collections. (Author)

This report evaluates the engineering information services provided by the University of Calgary since implementation of the COMPENDEX (tape service of Engineering Index, Inc.) service using the IBM TEXT-PAC system. Evaluation was made by a survey of the users of the Current Information Selection (CIS) service, the interaction between the system…

Some extensions of the methodology of document retrieval system evaluation are presented in this report. Part I provides an overview of some of the milepost studies in evaluation. Part II presents in some detail a discussion of measurement from a nonconventional viewpoint, including such topics as why measure at all, what measures are appropriate…

A relational document retrieval system is developed that is primarily concerned with hierarchic tree structures and lateral links. The lateral linkages are relationships that cannot be represented within the tree structure representation. A number of annotated examples are given along with a detailed description of the relational data structure…

Five abstracts journals and one indexing service in the field of library and information science were compared for the efficacy of their subject retrieval performance. (Author)

Describes the concept of maximum indexing, a system aimed at achieving maximum recall and maximum precision in computerized information retrieval. The indexing strategies used to achieve maximum indexing and the problems that arise are discussed. (9 references) (CLB)

Introduces a new model of viewing documents based on citing-cited relationship between them. Using Bayes' decision theory, it is shown how source document may be indexed and weighted by relevant cited document features, corresponding to one pass relevance feedback Model 1 (probabilistic indexing) or Model 2 (probabilistic retrieval). (24…

Reports of two experimental studies of uses of citing statements to augment full-text information retrieval of biomedical papers indicate that 78 percent of the words in computer-recognized citing statements were correctly attributable to corresponding cited papers, and computer procedures missed four percent of the words in the actual statements.…

The objectives of this paper are to describe the effect of using weighted index terms in a document retrieval system, and to evaluate retrieval performance when queries are expanded by terms occurring in clusters with the query terms. (16 references) (Authors)

This study proposes and investigates file ordering and retrieval techniques which, it is hypothesized, will: (a) reduce the average cost of retrieving records which satisfy a query, and (b) increase the rate of retrieval in the initial portion of the response period. (8 references) (Author)

The role of the generality effect in retrieval system evaluation is assessed, and evaluation results are given for the comparison of several document collections of distinct size and generality in the areas of documentation and aerodynamics. (14 references) (Author)

The results of an experiment simulating a library catalog search indicated that a relation exists between the lexical content load of the text, used to define the search topic, and the number of query terms generated by a group of experimental subjects (college students). (21 references) (Author)

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)

Discusses paragraph qualification, a search strategy used to retrieve information from computerized databases. Positive and negative paragraph qualification, after-the-fact qualification, multifile searching, and free text searching are described, using examples from the Bibliographic Retrieval Services (BRS)/Search System. (EJS)