Describes the development and functions of a text retrieval program that makes extensive use of the best match model of document retrieval rather than the Boolean model. The use of the program in teaching and research at the University of Sheffield is summarized. (24 references) (CLB)

Describes a cluster-based information retrieval procedure that can significantly reduce the computational requirements of the single linkage method, while still maintaining the retrieval effectiveness of the resulting classifications. Use of nearest neighbors, experimental details, and results and conclusions are highlighted. Fourteen references…

An n-gram is a string of characters, usually adjacent, extracted from a section of continuous text that can be used in spelling error detection and correction, query expansion, information retrieval, dictionary search, text compression, and language identification applications. This article provides an introduction to the use of n-grams in textual…

Describes the simulation of a nearest neighbor searching algorithm for document retrieval using a pool of microprocessors. Three techniques are described which allow parallel searching of a binary search tree as well as a PASCAL-based system, PASSIM, which can simulate these techniques. Fifty-six references are provided. (Author/LRW)

Reviews recent research into the use of hierarchic agglomerative clustering methods for document retrieval. The topics discussed include the calculation of interdocument similarities, algorithms used to implement clustering methods on large databases, validity testing of document hierarchies, appropriate search strategies, and other applications…

Reports on the use of stemming for Slovene language documents and queries in free-text retrieval systems and demonstrates that an appropriate stemming algorithm results in an increase in retrieval effectiveness when compared with nonstemming processing. A comparison is made with stemming of English versions of the same documents and queries. (24…

Reports algorithm for calculation of term discrimination values that is sufficiently fast in operation to permit use of exact values. Evidence is presented to show that relationship between term discrimination and term frequency is crucially dependent upon type of inter-document similarity measure used for calculation of discrimination values. (13…

Identifies limitations in the use of term co-occurrence data as a basis for automatic query expansion in natural language document retrieval systems. The use of similarity coefficients to calculate the degree of similarity between pairs of terms is explained, and frequency and discriminatory characteristics for nearest neighbors of query terms are…

Describes preliminary investigation of the use of International Computers Limited's Distributed Array Processor (DAP) for parallel searching of large serial files of documents. DAP hardware and software, test collections, measurement of DAP performance, search algorithms, experimental results, and DAP suitability for interactive searching are…