A decision theoretic foundation for indexing

Abraham Bookstein and Don R. Swanson

Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1975, vol. 26, issue 1, 45-50

Abstract: The indexing of a document is among the most crucial steps in preparing that document for retrieval. The adequacy of the indexing determines the ability of the system to respond to patron requests. This paper discusses this process, and document retrieval in general, on the basis of formal decision theory. The basic theoretical approach taken is illustrated by means of a model of word occurrences in documents in the context of a model information system; both models are fully defined in this paper. Though the main purpose of this paper is to provide insights into a very complex process, formulae are developed that may prove to be of value for an automated operating system. The paper concludes with an interpretation of recall and precision curves as seen from the point of view of decision theory.

Date: 1975
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630260107

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:26:y:1975:i:1:p:45-50

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-4571

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science from Association for Information Science & Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().