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st: Re: keyword searching and findit


From   Kit Baum <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   st: Re: keyword searching and findit
Date   Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:06:43 -0500

The description of each SSC Archive package exists as a 'ReDIF template' which contains both an Abstract (description in .pkg) and Keywords (which now will appear in .pkg files); that template is translated into a .pkg file when the item is created or updated. It would be useful for authors of materials for the archive would provide both a description and appropriate keywords, just as they are often asked to do for journal articles.

The Keywords play an important role in the web interface to the SSC Archive, and I am informed by sources at StataCorp that anything on 'd' lines is fair game for the 'findit' engine. In that sense, having keywords in the description OR in the KW: field will work equally well in assisting 'findit' or 'search' within Stata.

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html

On Dec 15, 2004, at 2:33 AM, Joe wrote:


First, to be fair to StataCorp, -findit- (or -net search . . ., pkg-) *does*
already do a keyword search as well as it can throughout the package file's
descriptive text, if I understand its actions correctly. And so it's vital
to the mutual success of contributor and future contribution seeker to
assure that pertinent keywords appear in that text. Perhaps a note to this
effect added to the -ssc submit- guidance document would be beneficial, that
is, the author is alerted to the benefit of writing the text of the package
file's descriptive text to include deliberately considered keyword-style
terms, where this might not have been among the objectives beforehand in
preparing it. This, without imposing a new standard for acceptance.

It will always be a matter of judgment when the list is reasonably but not
cumbersomely inclusive. But in general, if the package description text is
written with an eye toward incorporating salient keyword-style terms
somewhere in it, then the chances are increased that the mindsets of author
and future user will align at least to the extent that the package won't
remain hidden from users using -findit-, who naturally have an inclination
to search using keyword-type terms.
*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/



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