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Hierarchical clustering schemes

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Abstract

Techniques for partitioning objects into optimally homogeneous groups on the basis of empirical measures of similarity among those objects have received increasing attention in several different fields. This paper develops a useful correspondence between any hierarchical system of such clusters, and a particular type of distance measure. The correspondence gives rise to two methods of clustering that are computationally rapid and invariant under monotonic transformations of the data. In an explicitly defined sense, one method forms clusters that are optimally “connected,” while the other forms clusters that are optimally “compact.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA

    Stephen C. Johnson

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  1. Stephen C. Johnson
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Additional information

I am indebted to R. N. Shepard and J. D. Carroll for many stimulating discussions about this work, and for aid in preparing this paper.

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Johnson, S.C. Hierarchical clustering schemes. Psychometrika 32, 241–254 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289588

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289588

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