A statistical description of a text retrieval system allows the derivation of a unique and measurable performance criterion that, in turn, may be used in discussing various parameters of systems performance. (Author/PF)

The major advantage of sequential classification, a technique for automatically classifying documents into previously selected categories, is that the entire document need not be processed before it is classified. This method assumes the availability of a priori categories, a selection of keywords representative of these categories, and the a…

Derives the underlying structure of the Zipf distribution, with emphasis on its application to word frequencies in the inverted files of automatic bibliographic systems, and applies the Zipfian model to the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database. An appendix on the Zipfian mean and 12 references are included. (Author/JL)

The feasibility of using a distance measure, called the Bayesian distance, for automatic sequential document classification was studied. Results indicate that, by observing the variation of this distance measure as keywords are extracted sequentially from a document, the occurrence of noisy keywords may be detected. This property of the distance…

Discusses the design of a model-based management information system in terms of mathematical/statistical, information processing, and human factors issues and presents a prototype system for interlibrary loan networks. (Author/CWM)