Contents

Information retrieval involves searching organized collections of documents across the Internet. Its functionality depends on the relation between the concepts in a user's mind and the words in the documents. As systems improve, this relation grows ever closer. The cover illustrates the evolution of information retrieval, as discussed in the lead article in this special issue (327), using words and concepts related to medicine. See related articles beginning on 334 and the News story on 301. [Image: Heidi Kellner and Bruce Schatz]