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Advice given in printed and web‐based sources on HTML META tags with NAME=‘DESCRIPTION ’is surveyed.To determin patterns of relationships among descriptions on the same site,links were followed automatically from 460 pages registered withYahoo! and previously found to contain descriptions.Sites where the registered page pointed to many other pages were significantly less likely to reuse the same description on those other pages; where different descriptions were used words from the registered page’s description tended to appear toward the beginnings of other descriptions.

A new approach to generating string index entries from concept networks is discussed: terms from multi‐term search specifications are cited near the beginning of the entry, while an articulated entry structure indicative of concept relations is retained.

A quick, clear, and consistent automatic graphic display system has been developed for easy editing of complex concept subnetworks using only a floppy diskette drive and a PET2001–8 microcomputer. Initially implemented using Farradane's relations, it has an underlying data structure that facilitates merging with a general concept network. The primary display format is an enhanced triangular matrix; concepts may be sorted according to a standard citation order, and the display may also be automatically ‘compressed’.

This article is concerned with how sentences may be represented briefly but informatively in graphic displays of a sentence dependency structure. Different automatic abbreviation schemes were assessed on a sample data set for compression and ambiguity. ‘Speedwriting’ of words longer than five letters yielded a compression to 80% of the source text, with very low ambiguity. This and two other automatic notemaking‐like techniques have been implemented as options in the texnet text structure management system.

To determine the effect of web page editing tools on inclusion and page specificity of meta tagged descriptions and keywords.

Using customized software with Yahoo!'s random page service, data from 2,048 URLs were logged. Generator identification was cross‐tabulated with presence and length of both descriptions and keywords. A second analysis on pages on geocities.com was performed using URLs from Altavista. Local links from a sample of the Yahoo! set were followed and linked‐to pages were examined for presence of description or keywords and whether these differed from those on the linking pages.

The Yahoo! set showed generally no significant difference in inclusion of descriptions and keywords between generator‐identifying and other pages. The geocities.com set did show a significant difference for both keywords and descriptions. Exact repetition of descriptions or keywords between pages on the same site did not generally correlate significantly with identified generators.

Various other tools may have been used to create both generator‐identifying and other pages. A third factor, author level, is probably influencing both choice of authoring tool and decision to include description and keywords. How well keywords and descriptions actually fit the pages was not examined. Further research might examine other differences between the two sets.

Assistance with keywords and descriptions varies widely among web site editing packages, but is not a major selection criterion.

The hypothetical relationships had not previously been tested.

A rule‐governed derivation of an indexing phrase from the text of a document is, in Wittgenstein's sense, a practice, rather than a mental operation explained by reference to internally represented and tacitly known rules. Some mentalistic proposals for theory in information retrieval are criticised in light of Wittgenstein's remarks on following a rule. The conception of rules as practices shifts the theoretical significance of the social role of retrieval practices from the margins to the centre of enquiry into foundations of information retrieval. The abstracted notion of a cognitive act of ‘information processing’ deflects attention from fruitful directions of research.

The study compares the quality of indexing in library and information science databases (Library Literature (LL), Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), and Information Science Abstracts (ISA)). An alternative method to traditional retrieval effectiveness tests, suggested by White and Griffith in their paper ‘Quality of indexing in online databases’ [13], is adopted to measure the quality of the controlled vocabulary of each database. The method involves identifying clusters of documents that are similar in content, searching for each document from a given cluster in a database, identifying the terms used by the databases to index each document, and calculating certain measures to determine the quality of indexing. Problems found with the White and Griffith discrimination index led the authors to propose an alternative discrimination index which takes into consideration the collection size of a database. Our analysis shows that LISA has the best quality of indexing out of the three databases.

An indexing language is made more accessible to searchers and indexers by the presence of entry terms or near‐synonyms. This paper first presents an evaluation of existing entry terms and then presents and tests a strategy for creating entry terms. The key tools in the evaluation of the entry terms are documents already indexed into the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and an automatic indexer. If the automatic indexer can better map the title to the index terms with the use of entry terms than without entry terms, then the entry terms have helped. Sensitive assessment of the automatic indexer requires the introduction of measures of conceptual closeness between the computer and human output. With the tools described in this paper, one can systematically demonstrate that certain entry terms have ambiguous meanings. In the selection of new entry terms another controlled vocabulary or thesaurus, called the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), was consulted. An algorithm for mapping terms from SNOMED to MeSH was implemented and evaluated with the automatic indexer. The new SNOMED‐based entry terms did not help indexing but did show how new concepts might be identified which would constitute meaningful amendments to MeSH. Finally, an improved algorithm for combining two thesauri was applied to the Computing Reviews Classification Structure (CRCS) and MeSH. CRCS plus MeSH supported better indexing than did MeSH alone.

This paper discusses how minor counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB) scripts can be acquired or learned through automated processes from one employee to another.

This research is based on insights from social information processing and automated processing.

This paper helps explain the automated learning of minor CWBs from one’s coworkers.

While some employees purposefully engage in counterproductive workplace behaviors with the intent to harm their organizations, other less overt and minor behaviors are not always carried out with harmful intent, but remain counterproductive, nonetheless. By understanding how the transfer of minor CWBs occurs, employers can strive to set policies and practices in place to help reduce these occurrences.

This paper discusses how negative workplace learning can occur. We hope to contribute to the workplace learning literature by highlighting how and why the spread of minor CWBs occurs amongst coworkers and spur future research focusing on appropriate interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to document a three-year international project aimed to improve the capacity of participating schools and districts in implementing and scaling Teacher Peer Excellence Groups (TPEGs). The TPEG model involves teams of teachers organized by subject matter or grade levels, deeply engaged in communities of practice for instructional improvement. It facilitates the professionalization of teaching through the de-privatization of teacher practice, collaborative planning, giving and receiving actionable feedback, and holding one another accountable for implementing improvement measures.

The project is a collaborative partnership between US and Chinese universities and school districts in Tennessee and Shanghai. Mixed-method approaches were used to track the development and implementation of the TPEG model in 27 pilot schools in six Tennessee districts from 2013 to 2016. Data were collected through school site visits, lesson-planning documents, classroom observations, focus groups, interviews, and teacher and principal surveys.

This paper compiles the key findings from multiple research studies and program reports about the TPEG project. Findings provide encouraging evidence that, given sufficient support and guidance, teachers can construct productive learning communities. The results show consistent positive and statistically significant result across all three key signposts for effective communities of practice – increases in instructional collaboration, comfort with deprivatized teaching practice, and engagement in deprivatized teaching practice. These findings hold after controlling for key enabling conditions and school characteristics. Qualitative analyses provide a rich and nuanced picture of how TPEGs were doing after the implementation grants. Participating schools reported a full range of engagements in TPEGs, and emphasized the role of school leadership in facilitating and supporting teachers to lead and participate in TPEGs.

The TPEG project provides a valuable case study to address the benefits, concerns, and potential risks associated with cross-cultural learning of effective instructional practices. Findings from the three-year process highlight the key steps of cultivating the necessary culture and expertise to support, implement, and sustain effective TPEGs school-wide and district-wide. It also underscores the necessity of developing and customizing tools and resource kit for supporting this work such as observation protocols, feedback guides, and examples of timetables to conduct TPEG activities.