{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,23]],"date-time":"2025-10-23T10:57:38Z","timestamp":1761217058693,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,1]],"date-time":"2005-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1128124800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2005,10,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>To suggest that a theory of classification for information retrieval (IR), asked for by Sp\u00e4rck Jones in a 1970 paper, presupposes a full implementation of a pragmatic understanding. Part of the <jats:italic>Journal of Documentation<\/jats:italic> celebration, \u201c60 years of the best in information research\u201d.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>Literature\u2010based conceptual analysis, taking Sp\u00e4rck Jones as its starting\u2010point. Analysis involves distinctions between \u201cpositivism\u201d and \u201cpragmatism\u201d and \u201cclassical\u201d versus Kuhnian understandings of concepts.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Classification, both manual and automatic, for retrieval benefits from drawing upon a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, a consideration of theories of meaning, and the adding of top\u2010down approaches to IR in which divisions of labour, domains, traditions, genres, document architectures etc. are included as analytical elements and in which specific IR algorithms are based on the examination of specific literatures. Introduces an example illustrating the consequences of a full implementation of a pragmatist understanding when handling homonyms.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>Outlines how to classify from a pragmatic\u2010philosophical point of view.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>Provides, emphasizing a pragmatic understanding, insights of importance to classification for retrieval, both manual and automatic.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/00220410510625804","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,1,15]],"date-time":"2007-01-15T15:39:16Z","timestamp":1168875556000},"page":"582-597","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":48,"title":["A substantive theory of classification for information retrieval"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"61","author":[{"given":"Birger","family":"Hj\u00f8rland","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Karsten","family":"Nissen Pedersen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022021020451408200_b1","unstructured":"Andersen, H. (2002), \u201cThe development of scientific taxonomies\u201d, in Magnani, L. and Nersessian, N.J. (Eds), Model\u2010Based Reasoning: Science, Technology, Values, Kluwer Academic, New York, NY, pp. 95\u2010111."},{"key":"key2022021020451408200_b2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Andersen, H., Barker, P. and Chen, X. (1996), \u201cKuhn's mature philosophy of science and cognitive psychology\u201d, Philosophical Psychology, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 347\u201063.","DOI":"10.1080\/09515089608573188"},{"key":"key2022021020451408200_b3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Evens, M. (2002), \u201cThesaural relations in information retrieval\u201d, in Green, R., Bean, C.A. and Myaeng, S.H. (Eds), The Semantics of Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 143\u201060.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-94-017-0073-3_9"},{"key":"key2022021020451408200_b4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Frohmann, B.P. 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