Automatic Indexing Using Bibliographic Citations

Bibliographic citations attached to technical documents have been used variously to refer to related items in the literature, to confer importance to a given piece of writing, and to serve as supplementary indications of document content. In the present study, citations are used directly to identify document content, and an attempt is made to evaluate their effectiveness in a retrieval environment. It is shown that the use of bibliographic citations in addition to the normal keyword‐type indicators produces improved retrieval performance, and that in some circumstances, citations are more effective for retrieval purposes than other more conventional terms and concepts.