[Luhn 1958] - The Automatic Creation of Literature Abstracts

Abstract: Excerpts of technical papers and magazine articles that serve the purposes of conventional abstracts have been created entirely by automatic means. In the exploratory research described, the complete text of an article in machine-readable form is scanned by an IBM 704 data-processing machine and analyzed in accordance with a standard program. Statistical information derived from word frequency and distribution is used by the machine to compute a relative measure of significance, first for individual words and then for sentences. Sentences scoring highest in significance are extracted and printed out to become the |auto-abstract." [PDF]

[Edmundson 1964] - Problems in Automatic Abstracting

A variety of problems concerning the design and operation of an automatic abstracting system are discussed. The purpose is to present a general view of several major problem areas. No attempt is made to discuss details or to indicate preferences among alternative solutions. [PDF]

[Hahn & Mani 2000] - The Challenges of Automatic Summarization

Summarization - the art of abstracting key content from one or more information sources - has become an integral part of everyday life. People keep abreast of world affairs by listening to news bites. They base investment decisions on stock market updates. They even go to movies largely on the basis of reviews they’ve seen. With summaries, they can make effective decisions in less time. [PDF]

(JPC) - Last update: 2007/05/24