Handbook of Cluster Analysis provides a comprehensive and unified account of the main research developments in cluster analysis. Written by active, distinguished researchers in this area, the book helps readers make informed choices of the most suitable clustering approach for their problem and make better use of existing cluster analysis tools. The book is organized according to the traditional core approaches to cluster analysis, from the origins to recent developments. After an overview of approaches and a quick journey through the history of cluster analysis, the book focuses on the four major approaches to cluster analysis. These approaches include methods for optimizing an objective function that describes how well data is grouped around centroids, dissimilarity-based methods, mixture models and partitioning models, and clustering methods inspired by nonparametric density estimation. The book also describes additional approaches to cluster analysis, including constrained and semi-supervised clustering, and explores other relevant issues, such as evaluating the quality of a cluster. This handbook is accessible to readers from various disciplines, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of cluster analysis. For those already experienced with cluster analysis, the book offers a broad and structured overview. For newcomers to the field, it presents an introduction to key issues. For researchers who are temporarily or marginally involved with cluster analysis problems, the book gives enough algorithmic and practical details to facilitate working knowledge of specific clustering areas.

Handbook of Cluster Analysis provides a comprehensive and unified account of the main research developments in cluster analysis. Written by active, distinguished researchers in this area, the book helps readers make informed choices of the most suitable clustering approach for their problem and make better use of existing cluster analysis tools. The book is organized according to the traditional core approaches to cluster analysis, from the origins to recent developments. After an overview of approaches and a quick journey through the history of cluster analysis, the book focuses on the four major approaches to cluster analysis. These approaches include methods for optimizing an objective function that describes how well data is grouped around centroids, dissimilarity-based methods, mixture models and partitioning models, and clustering methods inspired by nonparametric density estimation. The book also describes additional approaches to cluster analysis, including constrained and semi-supervised clustering, and explores other relevant issues, such as evaluating the quality of a cluster. This handbook is accessible to readers from various disciplines, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of cluster analysis. For those already experienced with cluster analysis, the book offers a broad and structured overview. For newcomers to the field, it presents an introduction to key issues. For researchers who are temporarily or marginally involved with cluster analysis problems, the book gives enough algorithmic and practical details to facilitate working knowledge of specific clustering areas.

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the biannual meeting of the Classification and Data Analysis Group of Societa Italiana di Statistica, which was held in Rome, July 5-6, 1999. From the originally submitted papers, a careful review process led to the selection of 45 papers presented in four parts as follows: CLASSIFICATION AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING Cluster analysis Discriminant analysis Proximity structures analysis and Multidimensional Scaling Genetic algorithms and neural networks MUL TIV ARIA TE DATA ANALYSIS Factorial methods Textual data analysis Regression Models for Data Analysis Nonparametric methods SPATIAL AND TIME SERIES DATA ANALYSIS Time series analysis Spatial data analysis CASE STUDIES INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CLASSIFICATION SOCIETIES The International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS) is an agency for the dissemination of technical and scientific information concerning classification and data analysis in the broad sense and in as wide a range of applications as possible; founded in 1985 in Cambridge (UK) from the following Scientific Societies and Groups: British Classification Society -BCS; Classification Society of North America - CSNA; Gesellschaft fUr Klassifikation - GfKI; Japanese Classification Society -JCS; Classification Group of Italian Statistical Society - CGSIS; Societe Francophone de Classification -SFC. Now the IFCS includes also the following Societies: Dutch-Belgian Classification Society - VOC; Polish Classification Society -SKAD; Associayao Portuguesa de Classificayao e Analise de Dados -CLAD; Korean Classification Society -KCS; Group-at-Large.