Inter-record linkage structure in a hypertext bibliographic retrieval system

The author explores inter-record linkage relationships of a bibliographic hypertext system through the use of descriptor term co-occurrences. Using term distribution and term exhaustivity data for an existing system, three models of term co-occurrence are developed and tested against the observed data. The observed distribution of term co-occurrences using term sizes follows a complex, but regular relationship. The developed models, although matching the observed behavior for much of the distribution, do not adequately model the observed co-occurrence patterns for select parts of the distribution using chi-square values. With knowledge of the structure of such a hypertext system, an appropriate model may be constructed and used as the basis for studying systems design of inter-record linkages and system navigation by users in such a hypertext system.