Search

A linkage similarity measure which takes into account both the bibliographic coupling of document and their cocitations (both cited and citing papers) produced improved document retrieval over a measure based only on bibliographic coupling The test collection consisted of 1712 papers whose relevance to specific queries had been judged by users. To evaluate the effect of using cocitation data, we calculated for each query two measures of similarity between each relevant paper and every other paper retrieved. Papers were then sorted by the similarity measures, producing two ordered lists. We then compared the resulting predictions of relevance, partial relevance, and non. relevance to the user's evaluations of the same papers. Over- all, the change from the bibliographic coupling measure to the linkage similarity measure, representing the introduction of cocitation data, resulted in better retrieval performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequencies of the number of references per paper were obtained for the information science literature represented by ail papers cited in Information Science Abstracts, volumes 1-6 11966-1971). Almost one-third of the papers had no references. Half of them had four references or fewer; two-thirds had eight or fewer references. The ratio of papers without references to those with references was proposed as a measure of the scholarly status of a field. On this basis, information science was found to be less scholarly than pharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the community of libraries and library schools for the probability of its long-term survival in its present form. Evolutionary rates are considered, essential functions now performed by the library community are described, and two new functions are recommended for future survival: (1) research leadership in information science, and (2) lifelong continuing education. (five references) (LRW)

There is increasing interest in an empirical analysis of the system of scientific literature with a view toward improved information retrieval systems and science policy development. Many studies have sought to identify various aspects of the developmental structure of science via this system. The research has relied heavily on the citation or referencing structure with little attention directed toward the study and formalization of the citation relation itself. Fuzzy set theory is shown to be an appropriate approach to the formalization of this relation. The set of references is viewed as a static, partial representation of the total collection of eligible entities and individuals which were involved in the socio-intellectual interactions that contributed to the development of the paper. It is also shown that fuzzy sets of journals can be derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on evaluation of the retrieval performance of co-cited author search techniques that have been limited to observations of the general topicality of retrievals and the technique's ability to enhance a multi-strategy bibliographic search. In this article the author report the results of a quanitative analysis of cocited author retrieval performance in the general area of Drosophila genetics, the genetics of fruit flies. Specifically, to examine the effect on recall of first author-only access to the references in source papers indexed in the online program Scisearch.

This Opinion Paper considers the relevance for sub-Saharan Africa of the Western world's electronic information supply systems. It summarizes F. W. Lancaster's forecast of a coming electronic paperless society. From the perspective of Africa's economic and social difficulties it looks at Lancaster's recommendation that libraries in developing countries should attempt to bypass the book and leap from oral to electronic communication. It discusses who benefits from libraries at present and who would most likely benefit from electronic libraries. It cites examples of the "book famine" from which the existing libraries now suffer, it criticizes the view that supplying facts to important people via computer will help poor areas to develop. It outlines Africa's dependence and instances some of the inappropriate foreign advice and aid it receives. Most of the examples are taken from ex-British Africa, the countries that in all but one or two cases have kept on English as their official language. The conclusion is that the electronic library and indeed information science in general distract from what African librarians ought to be doing: helping the illiterate majority of their people learn to read and write. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of authors of papers in four scientific journals is positively correlated with the number of significant words in the titles of the same papers. A fifth journal showed no correlation. Implications for information retrieval are explored and tentative explanations are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to measure the scientific productivity in terms of number of papers published in journals by authors in the field of information science, compared to the publication pattern for science in general. Information science has been defined by the American Society for Information Science as the science that investigates the properties and behavior of information, the forces governing the flow of information, and the means of processing information, for optimum accessibility and usability. According to this definition, information science emerges as an umbrella-like discipline. If the basic professional society in this discipline is considered to be the American Society for Information Science, then its prime indexing journal may be considered to be "Information Science Abstracts," and its prime review vehicle may be the "Annual Review of Information Science and Technology."

Drexel Institute of Technology began an information science (IS) curriculum in 1963. This article deals with the eight years of the separate degree program from fall 1963 to fall 1971. The author recalls the background, need, and Drexel's response as learned from her experience as student and faculty member in the program, and comments specifically on the students, faculty, and coursework. (Contains 26 references.) (AEF)

Presents personal analysis of information science as a field of scientific inquiry and professional practice that has evolved over the past half-century. Examines origin of information science in respect to problems of the information explosion, social role of field, nature of "information," structure of field in terms of problems addressed, evolutionary trends in information retrieval, relation of information science to other fields, and educational models and issues. Contains 48 references. (Author/AEF)

Presents results of a survey of five volumes of the "Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS)," one for each decade of JASIS's existence. Discusses findings related to growth of JASIS and authorship, national versus international authorship, coauthoring of papers, author productivity, author gender, author affiliations, titles, and references. Ten figures show results. Contains 30 references.(AEF)

Explores how the "Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS)" has developed and what it might become. Topics covered include JASIS versus other American Society for Information Science publications; types of papers in JASIS; authors; competing journals; content scope; electronic enhancements; and how information scientists might shape the future of JASIS. (Author/AEF)

For the case of the distribution of papers across authors, the Success-Breeds-Success or Cumulative Advantage model is a popular candidate for informetrics. The method of time pattern of publication for individual authors can be used to discriminate between Cumulative Advantage and non-uniform giftedness models. The non-uniform giftedness model is more appropriate for inventors. (AEF)

This study of 846 scientific research papers investigated the status of scientific communication in the context of interdisciplinary collaboration. Concludes that collaborative research contributed significantly to interdisciplinarity in some disciplines and not in others. Survey findings are discussed from the perspective of scientist-scientist interaction, scientist-information interaction, and information-information interaction. Includes graphs and charts. (JAK)

The likelihood that the development of theoretical foundations for information science is a distant goal suggests that the near-term objectives of the information research community should be formulated more realistically. Since the task of science is increasingly being determined by urgent, and changing, social concerns, these objectives should be formulated within a socially utilitarian framework and within a problem domain different from that which has sustained information research in the past 15 years. The imminent societal imperative, management of knowledge as a social resource, appears to be a viable new framework for defining major roles and tasks for theory-oriented work in information science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a system-theoretic view of the relationship between the disciplines of communication and information/library studies. Terms most frequently appearing in article titles in five journals for each field are listed in rank order, and six propositions extending systems theory to communication and information are offered. (92 references) (LRW)

Explains the technologies of electronic imaging as background for other articles in this section, focusing on technologies seen by the developer or user of electronic imaging applications. Topics discussed include image acquisition, storage, retrieval, compression, transmission, display, manipulation, and printing; standards and architectural issues; and the development of networked image information resources. (nine references) (LRW)

Describes a study which was conducted to examine factors that could explain the frequency and the nature of use of documents in citing texts over time. The use of frequently and infrequently cited papers by the authors who cited them is discussed, and the functional classification schemes used are explained. (23 references) (LRW)

Examines how users interact with text to devise a more effective information retrieval interface. Research in cognitive psychology and information science that relates to the use of metaphors and document categorization is reviewed, and an example of text organization and retrieval by historians is presented. (60 references) (LRW)

Describes the authors' research behind the Historic Cancellation of Fact method, a solution to the information explosion crisis. Each existing paper is evaluated in the light of new papers published the day before, and any "old" paper which has suffered obsolescence is immediately pulled and republished in its entirety in SCRUB (Science Culling and Rejecting of Un-Information Bulletin). (AEF)

Citation analysis can go beyond its present preoccupations and explore new areas if it follows several rules of research design-some of them known and generally accepted, others specific to this discipline: (a) a rigorous definition of the research objectives is essential in deciding on its design, including the selection and definition of variables and the measurement of their effects; (b) the ascertainment of content-related variables enhances the theoretical interest and practical usefulness of citation analysis, although it may entail the use of smaller samples; (c) the set of papers to be compared with respect to citation frequency should be stratified in order to make them as similar as possible to each other; (d) the dependent variable, citation frequency, may comprise more than one kind of citation; (e) the elementary methods of analysis based on stratification (or matching) and adjustment should be complemented by model-based methods which could accomodate larger numbers of variables and would take into account the skewness of citation count distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Perspectives issue of the "Journal of the American Society for Information Science" brings together a collection of papers that explore the behavioral and organizational aspects of the changing communication system of science. Authors address such issues as the adoption of computer-mediated communication by scientists, the changing roles of professional associations, emerging publication patterns, and the impact of electronic publishing on the peer review system. (Contains 6 references.) (AEF)

Raises fundamental questions about the scope of information science and information retrieval, and illustrates how it has evolved over the last 60 years. The work of European documentalists is described, the terminology of multimedia is examined, and image handling is discussed as a method of focusing on representations other than text. (12 references) (LRW)

This paper describes the creation and development of a biomedical information system that includes a machine-readable data base containing clinical and research data and a publication entitled the Index-Handbook of Ototoxic Agents. This system provides for compilation of tables of data and it could be used in an interactive mode. Basic to the system is the construction of a profile to facilitate extraction of data from the literature and the development of a format in which to present this data in a brief, informative surrogate. The history and plan of the project and the methods used for search of the literature and file construction are described. The paper also discusses the presentation of data in journal articles and suggests that editors of journals concerned with drug information should be encouraged to require that all articles contain a standard amount of data presented in an unambiguous form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews selected effects of information technology development on the Third World, suggesting that more positive effects lie in social and cultural realms, while economic aspects favor industrialized countries. Social and cultural impacts of information technology are discussed and effect of changing technology on national information policies is illustrated. (13 references) (EJS)

Considers information exchange as an essential element in international cooperative arrangements and examines information systems of United Nations and its specialized agencies and their contributions to international cooperation. Recent trends in establishment of a global information network, impact of information technology, and problems of developing countries are discussed. (27 references) (EJS)

Five articles present perspectives on National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, a permanent, independent agency of U.S. government established by Public Law 91-345 in 1970 to advise President and Congress on nation's library and information needs and to develop and implement policies and plans in this area. References provided. (EJS)

Discussion of problems with fuzzy subsets in document retrieval highlights attempts to invent a system of weighted fuzzy queries in which weights correspond to relative importance of each term in query as whole, and use of Kantor's Logic for Retrieval as an alternative to Boolean queries. Six references are cited. (EJS)

Addresses the role of information technology and effective management of information resources in reversing declining rate of growth of productivity in United States. Discussion covers U.S. productivity, reasons for decline in its growth, productivity measurement, improving productivity, and related activities of National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. (17 references) (EJS)

Discusses the relationship between information science research and practice and briefly describes current research on 10 topics in information retrieval literature: vector processing retrieval strategy, probabilistic retrieval models, inverted file procedures, relevance feedback, Boolean query formulations, front-end procedures, citation networks, text passage retrieval, linguistic analysis, and character matching. (51 references) (EJS)

This paper highlights potential benefits and more pressing social and legal problems facing Latin American nations in the area of informatics and small computers. Discussion covers potential uses (education, office applications, agriculture, national planning); role of central governments; implications for economic development; and transborder data flows. Twenty-four sources are given. (EJS)