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Cited by 1,019

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 42 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The minimum description length principle in coding and modeling

Barron, A., Rissanen, J., Bin Yu·1998·IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Abstract

We review the principles of minimum description length and stochastic complexity as used in data compression and statistical modeling. Stochastic complexity is formulated as the solution to optimum universal coding problems extending Shannon's basic source coding theorem. The normalized maximized likelihood, mixture, and predictive codings are each shown to achieve the stochastic complexity to within asymptotically vanishing terms. We assess the performance of the minimum description length criterion both from the vantage point of quality of data compression and accuracy of statistical inference. Context tree modeling, density estimation, and model selection in Gaussian linear regression serve as examples.

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Metadata

Authors
Barron, A., Rissanen, J., & Yu, B.
Venue
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
Published
1998
Volume
44
Issue
6
Pages
2743-2760
ISSN
0018-9448 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2102098892
Cited by
1,019
References
42
FWCI
23.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The minimum description length principle in coding and modeling. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1109/18.720554
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Barron, A., Rissanen, J., & Yu, B. (1998). The minimum description length principle in coding and modeling. IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. https://doi.org/10.1109/18.720554

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