Search

An experiment was carried out to study the effect of coding, as an independent variable, on the information retrieval process. A simple prime number coding scheme was utilized in conjunction with Goffman's indirect method file structuring and searching technique. The results demonstrated that a code, in itself, can affect retrieval. It introduces a noticeable variable into the process. Generally, coding has been considered a minor element, but clearly much more needs to be learned about how codes interact with the other functions in the retrieval system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a technique which expands W. Goffman's Indirect Method search strategy by using means other than index terms to reflect document content. The four basic measures of document relatedness were: (1) Index terms, (2) Journals in which the documents appeared, (3) Closeness of the authors of the documents and (4) Closeness of citations. In the experiment a distance function between documents is defined, based on the properties of the documents themselves. The proximity between pairs of documents is then determined by calculating the Euclidean distance. Based on the results of this experiment, authors or authors with journals are the best measures of document relatedness. This aspect should be explored further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]