Showing papers in "Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology in 1982"
TL;DR: A strong association between sociologists' evaluations of journal rank and particular citation rank indicators is found, which suggests that Social Science Journal Citation Reports could prove a valuable aid to journal selection for libraries and information systems.
Abstract: Considerable interest has been shown in problems associated with ranking journals in accord with their relative importance. With the publication of Journal Citation Reports, regularly updated ranking indicators, based on citation analysis, are made readily available. These indicators have been shown to have significant correlations with scientists' evaluations of the relative importance of journals in the biomedical sciences, but not the physical sciences. This article examines the situation in the social sciences, and finds a strong association between sociologists' evaluations of journal rank and particular citation rank indicators. This suggests that Social Science Journal Citation Reports could prove a valuable aid to journal selection for libraries and information systems.
73 citations
TL;DR: Methods are introduced in this study which reduce the role of the search intermediaries by making it possible to generate Boolean search formulations completely automatically from natural language statements provided by the system patrons.
Abstract: Modern information retrieval systems are designed to supply relevant information in response to requests received from the user population. In most retrieval environments the search requests consist of keywords, or index terms, interrelated by appropriate Boolean operators. Since it is difficult for untrained users to generate effective Boolean search requests, trained search intermediaries are normally used to translate original statements of user need into useful Boolean search formulations. Methods are introduced in this study which reduce the role of the search intermediaries by making it possible to generate Boolean search formulations completely automatically from natural language statements provided by the system patrons. Frequency considerations are used automatically to generate appropriate term combinations as well as Boolean connectives relating the terms. Methods are covered to produce automatic query formulations both in a standard Boolean logic system, as well as in an extended Boolean system in which the strict interpretation of the connectives is relaxed. Experimental results are supplied to evaluate the effectiveness of the automatic query formulation process in practice.
73 citations
TL;DR: The article attempts to show that information resources as economic “goods” do not reflect the assumptions on which economic models have been built in the past because they involve nonlinear, nonequilibrium, evolutionary processes.
Abstract: This article addresses the importance of information resources in the foundation of an information- and knowledge-based society and aims to encourage research in this area. An information resource is defined as a stock of information that has been societally institutionalized for reuse by one or many classes of users. An information-based society depends on information production for its overall welfare, but information production requires continuous reuse of information, and therein lies the dependence of such a society on its information resources. After a review of definitions and models of information production, a life cycle model is presented as a way to clarify and conceptualize information resources. The life cycle phases consist of generation, institutionalization, maintenance, enhancement, and distribution. An information resource stands at the midpoint of the life cycle, integrating and coordinating the various actors and activities of these phases. The article attempts to show that information resources as economic “goods” do not reflect the assumptions on which economic models have been built in the past because they involve nonlinear, nonequilibrium, evolutionary processes. Various types of research are needed to disaggregate the economic and institutional infrastructures of information resources.
66 citations
TL;DR: Although heavy collaboration is an effective mechanism to stimulate substantially higher productivity, there is also a distinct core of highly prolific musicologists who collaborate very little, if at all, which suggests that the traditional belief that the humanist has a general tendency to work alone is supported.
Abstract: Productivity and collaboration are defined in terms of a 1966 study of a scientific group. These two parameters in a humanistic subject, computational musicology, are compared with the earlier study. The two most collaborative musicologists are also most prolific. However, only 15% of the humanistic literature are involved in coauthorship as compared with 80% of the scientific subject. Although heavy collaboration is an effective mechanism to stimulate substantially higher productivity, there is also a distinct core of highly prolific musicologists who collaborate very little, if at all. We suggest that such evidence supports the traditional belief that the humanist has a general tendency to work alone.
55 citations
TL;DR: The Individualized Instruction for Data Access System was tested in an industrial setting and it was demonstrated that end users could learn to do their own bibliographic searches through computer‐assisted instruction as well as they learned through a comparable period of conventional instruction.
Abstract: This is the second of two articles describing the development, testing, and evaluation of the Individualized Instruction for Data Access System (IIDA). The system was tested in an industrial setting and it was demonstrated that (1) end users of scientific and technical literature could learn to do their own bibliographic searches through computer-assisted instruction as well as they learned through a comparable period of conventional instruction, and (2) end users were as satisfied with the results of their own searchings as with the result of searches performed for them, for the types of searches tested.
43 citations
TL;DR: A survey of the vast literature presently available in the field of systems thinking and cybernetics and some details about the contributions of the following selected scholars are offered.
Abstract: This article offers a concise survey and glimpse of the vast literature presently available in the field of systems thinking and cybernetics. The first part discusses the areas of systems philosophy, systems analysis (mathematical systems theory), empirical systems research, and systems engineering, while the second part offers some details about the contributions of the following selected scholars: von Bertalanffy, Bogdanov, Ackoff, Churchman, and Herbert A. Simon. A bibliography of some 150 books and papers closes the article.
42 citations
TL;DR: The advantages and disadvantages of implementing text compression in storage and telecommunications are discussed, and an indication is given of the types of hardware which may be used.
Abstract: Many methods have been suggested for representing text for storage on magnetic media or for transmission down telecommunication channels with fewer bits then are required by a conventional fixed-length character representation. These methods are reviewed, and attention is drawn to the advantages of techniques in which variable-length character strings are represented by a fixed number of bits. Such techniques are described in more detail. The advantages and disadvantages of implementing text compression in storage and telecommunications are discussed, and an indication is given of the types of hardware which may be used. The extent to which text may be compressed with the methods discussed, and approximate timings, are stated.
27 citations
TL;DR: A closer examination of current theoretical developments and the present practice of information retrieval reveals that a combination of the existing theory of probabilistic retrieval into a practical methodology based on Boolean searches would be very promising.
Abstract: Up to the present a number of theoretical approaches has been developed in order to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of information retrieval. However, most of the information retrieval methods based on these approaches have never passed the stage of purely theoretical investigation, and experimentation, if carried out at all, has been very limited in scale. A closer examination of current theoretical developments and the present practice of information retrieval reveals that a combination of the existing theory of probabilistic retrieval into a practical methodology based on Boolean searches would be very promising. Such an extension of the probabilistic approach to information retrieval is outlined.
21 citations
TL;DR: The underlying notions are presented, and the proposed measures of similarity between Boolean search request formulations are justified and illustrated by examples, and some experimental results concerning the suggested similarity measures are given.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to propose a means of determining the similarity between search request formulations, which are Boolean combinations of descriptors. The similarity measures introduced can be used to cluster Boolean search request formulations. The search request formulation clusters can in turn be utilized in methods for clustering document representations. The initiation of the work on the methodology for determining similarity measures for Boolean search request formulations has been encouraged by hitherto performed experimental research into information retrieval systems with search request formulations in the form of sets of certain descriptors, i.e., in the same form as document representations. These experiments have shown a preponderance of those methods for clustering document representations that use previously formed clusters of search request formulations. We can expect that by using the proposed methodology for determining the similarity between Boolean combinations of descriptors, we might obtain similar results for the case of Boolean search request formulations. The introductory part of the article provides the background for undertaking the research reported. The underlying notions are then presented, and the proposed measures of similarity between Boolean search request formulations are justified and illustrated by examples. In addition, some experimental results concerning the suggested similarity measures are given.
19 citations
TL;DR: The future lies in an integration of primary and secondary services, involved in building “filters” and search aids to guide the user from the initial databases of primary text to databases of Abstracts derived from primary text, and finally to more specialized, subject‐profile‐oriented databases of abstracts.
Abstract: In the past decade the increased costs of traditional print-on-paper secondary services have resulted in a decline in subscriptions for many titles Concomitantly, the cost effectiveness and efficiency of computer processing has led to a proliferation of online databases Secondary services in online form have not only increased access points to the primary literature, but have also had the effect of making information more accessible regardless of geographic location The future lies in an integration of primary and secondary services Dual-mode secondary publications will gradually give rise to new secondary services in machine-readable form only As the primary literature follows suit, secondary services will be involved in building “filters” and search aids to guide the user from the initial databases of primary text to databases of abstracts derived from primary text, and finally to more specialized, subject-profile-oriented databases of abstracts
14 citations
TL;DR: The distribution of use of items in a large information store is examined and it is suggested that a simple exponential distribution is inadequate and that a multi‐factor exponential model describes the process of obsolescence more precisely.
Abstract: The distribution of use of items in a large information store is examined. The findings suggest that a simple exponential distribution is inadequate and that a multi-factor exponential model describes the process of obsolescence more precisely.
TL;DR: This study examined the extent to which Zipf and Whatmough's theory of quantitative semantics provides the theoretical justification for the current practice of using frequency data for the design and updating of the retrieval thesauri of science/technology.
Abstract: Current guidelines for retrieval thesaurus design and maintenance recommend the use of relative frequency of occurrence of descriptors for the design and updating of a thesaurus. This study examined the extent to which Zipf and Whatmough's theory of quantitative semantics provides the theoretical justification for the current practice. The retrieval language of social sciences and science/technology was analyzed to test if the observed data on relative frequency conforms to the theoretical distribution of Zipf's law. Findings demonstrate that the principle of least effort serves to explain the pattern of use of the retrieval language in social sciences but not in science/technology. For social sciences, one may assume that the frequently occurring descriptors are indeed becoming semantically ambiguous thus requiring a greater variety of access points to the concepts that the more frequently occurring descriptors represent. No theoretical justification was found for using the frequency data in the design and updating of the descriptors of science/technology. Thus, this finding challenges the theoretical basis for the present practice of using frequency data for the design and updating of the retrieval thesauri of science/technology.
TL;DR: The applicability of thematic analysis to information science is explored by means of examining four thematic models of change of state of knowledge, as exemplified by terms such as “literature obsolescence.”
Abstract: The concept of thematic analysis, as developed by Gerald Holton, Robert Merton, and others, is reviewed and characterized. The strengths and limitations of this concept are briefly discussed. The applicability of thematic analysis to information science is explored by means of examining four thematic models of change of state of knowledge, as exemplified by terms such as “literature obsolescence.” Articles from ten years of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science (volumes 16–27) were selected for examination. Several of these articles are shown to have thematic content and to exemplify the four models of change of state of knowledge. A concluding discussion assesses the implication of thematic analysis for information science and points out some unresolved problems of such analysis.
TL;DR: It is shown how systems theory presents us with a useful and interesting way of looking at the concepts of knowledge and information, and how the idea of a system helps give meaning to the notion of “meaning.”
Abstract: I attempt in this article to show how systems theory presents us with a useful and interesting way of looking at the concepts of knowledge and information. Using a simple model from the (normative) theory of economic decision making, I try to illustrate how the idea of a system helps give meaning to the notion of “meaning.” I also introduce a distinction between structural information and parametric information, suggesting that the former, now somewhat neglected in the economic theory of information systems, may actually pose the more interesting questions for future research.
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of the postcoordinate retrieval effectiveness of two indexing languages: LCSH and PRECIS, was conducted and the effect of augmenting each with title words was also studied.
Abstract: This article reports on a comparison of the postcoordinate retrieval effectiveness of two indexing languages: LCSH and PRECIS. The effect of augmenting each with title words was also studied. The database for the study was over 15,000 UK MARC records. Users returned 5326 relevance judgments for citations retrieved for 61 SDI profiles, representing a wide variety of subjects. Results are reported in terms of precision and relative recall. Pure/applied sciences data and social sciences data were analyzed separately. Cochran's significance tests for ratios were used to interpret the findings. Recall emerged as the more important measure discriminating the behavior of the two languages. Addition of title words was found to improve recall of both indexing languages significantly. A direct relationship was observed between recall and exhaustivity. For the social sciences searches, recalls from PRECIS alone and from PRECIS with title words were significantly higher than those from LCSH alone and from LCSH with title words, respectively. Corresponding comparisons for the pure/applied sciences searches revealed no significant differences.
TL;DR: The amount of duplication in authors' names is examined and a proposal to reduce it by mechanical derivation of middle initials is proposed.
Abstract: Authors with Japanese surnames are needlessly confused with each other in citations and bibliographies because their names are extensively duplicated. This report examines the amount of duplication and proposes reducing it by mechanical derivation of middle initials.
TL;DR: The current state of the humanities database producers' view of themselves as a unique group with unique problems and concerns and current trends toward standardization in humanities databases are reviewed.
Abstract: Secondary access services for the humanities have been in existence since 1910 and six of these indexes are also now available for online searching. Profiles of these services are drawn from information supplied either by their editors or from available literature. The evolution of some of these services from print to online availability is discussed as are the user and database characteristics which make humanists reluctant to use these services in their machine-readable forms. The resulting lack of use of humanities databases is discussed as are the marketing responsibilities of both vendors and producers. The current state of the humanities database producers' view of themselves as a unique group with unique problems and concerns and current trends toward standardization in humanities databases are reviewed.
TL;DR: Analysis of the faulty requests revealed that as high as 85% displayed each error printed in Current Contents, and fully 53% of all requests were from the United States.
Abstract: Printing errors may creep into reprint requests This affected my papers on Joseph Coats in the Scottish Medical Journal and on childhood cancer in the Medical Journal of Australia Thus, their titles, as listed in Current Contents, were afflicted by the printer's devil and thereby contained respectively one insertion and one deletion error Analysis of the faulty requests revealed that as high as 85% displayed each error printed in Current Contents Furthermore, fully 53% of all requests were from the United States Both trends are of interest in the field of information science
TL;DR: This article applies the information/requirement/product definition technique to environmental pollution control technology to show how a range of information outputs and services needs to be developed to satisfy various requirements.
Abstract: Information system outputs and user needs vary with the phases of the innovation decision-making process as defined by Rogers and Shoemaker: awareness/knowledge, attitude formation/persuasion, trial/decision, confirmation. Within each phase, products and user needs can be defined as the parameters of user characteristics, subject content, packaging characteristics, and marketing techniques. In this article we apply this information/requirement/product definition technique to environmental pollution control technology to show how a range of information outputs and services needs to be developed to satisfy various requirements. This technique could be applied to virtually any applications area.
TL;DR: Using bibliometric techniques for determination of the distribution of demand, the hypothesis of hyperbolic distribution, and an index of differential demand are developed.
Abstract: Differential demand for use among the items in an information store is a necessary condition for management of the store. Using bibliometric techniques for determination of the distribution of demand, the hypothesis of hyperbolic distribution, and an index of differential demand are developed.
TL;DR: This article lists some of the “disciplines of information,” including several with a strong systems orientation, and identifies those information scientists for whom a knowledge of systems methodology is important.
Abstract: The focus of information research in any given discipline depends on the meaning of the word “information” for scientists in that discipline. This article lists some of the “disciplines of information,” including several with a strong systems orientation, and identifies those information scientists for whom a knowledge of systems methodology is important. This is followed by a broad-brush treatment of the modern systems movement: its role in the changing worldview of science, some disciplines (e.g., cybernetics and operations research) that have contributed to its development, and the distinction that can be drawn between General Systems Theory (GST) and other approaches to the study of systems—a theme developed by Mattessich in the article that follows.
TL;DR: An empirical model for predicting the size of an information store necessary to satisfy specified levals of demand is developed and a modus operandi for selecting items for retirement or removal with the least adverse impact on effectiveness of the store is suggested.
Abstract: Based on earlier studies by the author relating to differential demand among items in an information store and to the relation of demand to age of material, this article undertakes to develop an empirical model for predicting the size of an information store necessary to satisfy specified levals of demand. A modus operandi for selecting items for retirement or removal with the least adverse impact on effectiveness of the store is suggested.
TL;DR: This article shows that if simple foundations of the cost structure are taken into consideration, high values of both precision and recall are not necessarily the goal when searching in an information system.
Abstract: This article shows that if simple foundations of the cost structure are taken into consideration, high values of both precision and recall are not necessarily the goal when searching in an information system. When the cost structure is known, the optimal value of recall and the optimal value of precision can be found. Both values are functions of relative prices/costs only.
TL;DR: A brief look at the information processing requirements of adaptive systems (focusing upon humans) suggests the existence of another dimension of information—that having to do with behavior and thus with pattern.
Abstract: Even though the word “information” has a number of different meanings, most scientific conceptions of information are unidimensional and quantitative. Such information concepts ignore the major issues of information processing in adaptive systems. A brief look at the information processing requirements of adaptive systems (focusing upon humans) suggests the existence of another dimension of information—that having to do with behavior and thus with pattern.
TL;DR: Some of the aspects discussed in this article are the components of marketing, how information products and services relate to those components, and the pricing of multiple products produced from a bibliographic database.
Abstract: Even though information products and services are like consumer products and services in many respects, there is little in the literature about their marketing. This is true for both the information and the marketing field. Yet, aspects of information products and services marketing are extremely interesting and challenging. Some of those aspects discussed in this article are the components of marketing (i.e., consumer market, new product development, sales, advertising and promotion, packaging, channels of distribution, pricing and marketing research), how information products and services relate to those components, and the pricing of multiple products produced from a bibliographic database.
TL;DR: This article found that scientific and technological extracts are found to give rise to a much larger number of index terms than humanities and social science extracts, which would appear to arise from differences in the word frequency distributions for each type of subject.
Abstract: A recently suggested method for the automatic indexing of full text is applied to extracts from the Brown Corpus. Scientific and technological extracts are found to give rise to a much larger number of index terms than humanities and social science extracts. These results would appear to arise from differences in the word frequency distributions for each type of subject.
TL;DR: An ill-defined rather than a well-defined problem is needed, an analysis of the process of thinking while playing the game is a better measure of eventual changes in the mode of thinking of the participants than postgame pencil-and-paper attitude tests.
Abstract: A replication of Nelson and Mitroff's 1974 experiment in using computer gaming to teach Bothsides thinking was conducted in The Netherlands. Their results were not confirmed with regard to the attitude change of participants. The programmed well-defined problem did not trigger "bothsides" thinking, and, in our opinion, does not fit this mode of decision-making. In addition, we found the list of questions for measuring the "change of mind" of the players neither valid nor reliable. The provisional conclusions of the research reported here are that (1) an ill-defined rather than a well-defined problem is needed, (2) the problem should be relevant and realistic, (3) an analysis of the process of thinking while playing the game is a better measure of eventual changes in the mode of thinking of the participants than postgame pencil-and-paper attitude tests.