ASLIB CRANFIELD RESEARCH PROJECTFACTORS DETERMINING THE PERFORMANCEOF INDEXING SYSTEMSVOLUME I. DESIGN
byCyril Cleverdon, Jack Mills and Michael Keen
Part 1. Text

' An investigation supported by a grant to Aslib
by the National Science Foundation

Cranfield
1966

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The project reported in this volume followed on from the first Aslib-Cranfieldproject, and was again financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
The support of the Foundation was, as usual, not restricted to financial assistance,and I am most grateful for the advice and encouragement which we received,
particularly from Mrs. Helen Brownson.
The full-time members of the project group were Mr. Jack Mills, fromSeptember 1962 to August 1965, Mr. Wilfrid Lancaster in the year of 1963, andMr. Michael Keen, who commenced in January 1963 and is still engaged on thefinal stages of the project. In addition, some sixty-three other persons haveworked part-time at some stage. To all these people, I have to express my appreciation for their efforts.
An essential requirement of the project involved co-operation of a large numberof research scientists. The response to our request was most satisfactory, and I
acknowledge with thanks the generous assistance of some two hundred scientists,many of whom are known to me only by name.
iAs before, As lib administered the grant and also, on this occasion madeaccommodation available in their headquarters in London, and I am grateful for thehelp given by the Director, Mr. Leslie Wilson, and many members of his staff.
I would also express my appreciation to the Principal and Senate of theCollege of Aeronautics for agreeing to my taking part in this project while continuing my normal duties.
Finally, there are many friends and colleagues with whom, during the past
three years, I have had the opportunity of discussing the Aslib-Cranfield projects.
Their comments and suggestions have always been helpful, and I am most gratefulfor the interest which they have shown.

CONTENTSPART 1Page

Chapter 1

General considerations

1

Chapter 2

Test design

9

Chapter 3

Documents and questions

19

Chapter 4

Indexing procedures

40

Chapter (JFormation of index languages

58

Chapter 6

Testing techniques

90

Chapter 7

Additional tests

106

Chapter 8

Comments113

References

118

Part 2

AppendicesIndex

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
PageFigure 2.1

N.A.S.A. search system analysis sheet

12

Table 3.1

Bibliographical origin of base documents usedin the test

20

3.2

Country of residence of authors of base papers

20

3.3

Comparison of authors9 country of residence andcountry of publication

20

3.4

Relevance assessments of documents as decided
by authors in relation to their search questions

25

3.5

Grades of relevance as decided by the authors

25

3.6

Relevance assessments giving a comparison ofbasic and supplementary questions
Relevance assessments giving a comparison ofbasic and supplementary questions for all gradesof relevance27

Breakdown of 312 documents retrieved bybibliographic coupling at strength of 7 or more

35

Examples of question/title matches for relevant
documents

35

Relevance grades of documents with specified
question/title match

37

Comparison of the cited and additional documentswith specified question/title match

37

Comparison of recall performance of relevant
cited and additional documents in relation to
25 questions

39

Figure 4.1

Indexing sheet for Document 1590

51

5.1

Natural language single term data595.2

Patterns of term usage60

5.3Sample sheet from schedules of single terms

72

3.7

3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12

26

1Master indexing sheet for Document 2076

92

2

Posting sheet for 'FLOW1 in relation toDocuments 1745-2116

94

3Starting term authority sheet showing terms
related to 'FLOW

95

4

The 'Beehive' filing cabinet

95

56

Search starting terms for Question 181
Search sheet for Question 181 in relation toDocuments 1931-1992

95
96

Score sheet for Question 181 in relation toDocuments 1956-1992

99

Results sheet for Question 181 for index
languages 1 to 6

101

Processing of Document 2076 in relation toQuestion 51 for analysis of interfixing andpartitioning

103

Score sheet for links with Document 2076 for
Question 51

1047891011>

Instruction sheet for search with controlled
term vocabulary

104

1

Citation index sheet

108

2

Citation index reference card

109

3Citation index master card

109

4

Bibliographic coupling card111

5

Score sheet for bibliographic coupling forQuestion 34
Recalculated bibliographic coupling card111
111

6