general frequency

a weighted mean of the frequencies of the various values in a field or combination of fields (identifying item) among all the records in the file to be searched; this is value non-specific (i.e., it is a field attribute regardless of the value in the field); to refer to the derivation of the g. f. we call it the "B-squared" value and to the significance of the g. f. we call it the coincidence value. (cf. Newcombe, 1988, p. 102-103).