Less Than Full-Text Indexing Using a Non-Boolean Searching Model*.

The relative effectiveness of indexing using full-text or less than full-text was tested using a non-Boolean, chaining type of file structure and searching method. Indexing was done using titles, abstracts, full-text, references, and various combinations of these surrogates and then Goffman's indirect method of information retrieval was used to structure and search the tile. The database consisted of 733 documents and 38 queries were searched. The hypothesis of the study was that by using a particular non-Boolean method as a file structuring and searching technique, full-text indexing is not essential to optimum information retrieval effectiveness. The outcome of the study was positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]