Journal of Information Science

Two kinds of categorization are distinguished - rational and natural. Quantitative aspects of natural categorization are explored by means of a distribution first derived by Laplace but which is here slightly modified to make it more adaptable. This basic distribution, with an inverse square law probability density function, can be simply related to the empirical distri butions of Lotka, Zipf, Bradford and others. Some implications of this unified empirical law of natural categorization are discussed.

The prime importance of English in international communi cation is now well documented, as is the poor access to scientific communication in developing countries and the damaging consequences of this. This article presents informa tion on the experiences of scientists working in developing countries, on the basis of a survey carried out at Leicester University. Patterns of use of English-language publications are described, along with the problems of obtaining required publi cations. Surprisingly, a considerable number of scientists claimed that they had no difficulty in this respect.

In this paper the existing functions of, and a number of future requirements for, information retrieval systems are dis cussed. Two basic requirements for free text information retri eval systems have been identified; one for a more general information modelling language and the other for a simple user interface for complex ad-hoc queries. The paper describes some existing and proposed hardware and software methods for implementing free text information retrieval systems. Emphasis is placed on methods of improving the functionality of the system rather than on methods of increasing the performance. It is suggested that considerable improvements can be achieved by a more imaginative use of existing hardware, though it is realised that special purpose architectures will play an increas ingly important role in information systems. The paper con cludes with a design for a new information retrieval system based on the use of the Binary Relationship Model for infor mation storage and retrieval, and an interactive graphical dis play for the user interface.

Two essentially practical methods which do not rely on the uncertainties of the statistical approach are proposed. The method of limiting recall has been used with a document collection of over one million items; it requires test searches to be carried out independently by several groups. The use of a very new and powerful retrieval aid named ZOOM is also proposed as a form of super-search for each test question, the results of which can be assumed to be close to the total number of relevant documents. Used together, these two methods would provide cross-verification.

The arguments of J. Michel are summarised and challenged. Linguistic and political barriers in science and technology are held to be more dependent on group dynamics and mores than on the arguments, traditional to information scientists, mar shalled in the original paper.

This paper concludes with a plea for a proper awareness of the cultural, historical background and local 'common sense" knowledge base of the group's initiates, with a perception of current group problems, before adequate information transfer can be effected.