Dissertation Information for Carole A. Chauncey NAME: - Carole A. Chauncey
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- Case Western Reserve University (USA) (1987)
ADVISORS: - Tefko Saracevic
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Richard L. Derr - Thomas Gleason Morris - Baldeo K. Taneja
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: An Assessment of Index Term Ranking
Abstract: The enhancement of document retrieval is dependent on the use of index terms which convey adequate information.ยท It has been postulated that index terms are not equally content-bearing and therefore cannot promote the retrieval of relevant documents with the same degree of dependability. This investigation assesses how several indexers rank the selected index terms, as well as how the agreement/consistency patterns among indexers vary within the titles and the abstracts. The hYPotheses tested in this study are that a) terms selected during an indexing exercise have varying degress of agreement; b) the most content-bearing terms get assigned earliest in the indexing exercise; c) high agreement terms are found in specific parts of the text. to test these hypotheses the following tests were conducted; a) exhaustivity-time experiment (Productivity test); and b) inter-indexer consIst@ncy versus exhaustivlty. The results of the exhaustivity-time test show a) an increase in selection time asexhaustivity increases; and b) inter-indexer consistency decreases al exhauativity increases.
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