Using citations to facilitate precise indexing and automatic index creation in collections of research papers

We describe Rosetta, a digital library system for scientific literature. Ro setta makes it easy for people to find the information for which they are l ooking even when using short, imprecise queries. Rosetta indexes research a rticles based on the way they have been described when cited in other docum ents. The concise descriptions that occur in citations are similar to the s hort queries people typically form when searching; therefore, citations may make a better basis for indexing than do the words used within a research article itself. Using this indexing technique we are able to provide a user interface that presents users with an automatically generated directory of the information space surrounding a query. Our objective with this interfa ce is to present people with the information for which they have asked as w ell as the information for which they may have intended to ask. (C) 2001 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.