ONE OF THE PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED IN CLUSTERING TECHNIQUES AS APPLIED TO DOCUMENT RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS USING BIBLIOGRAPHIC COUPLING DEVICES IS THAT THE COMPUTATIONAL EFFORT REQUIRED GROWS ROUGHLY AS THE SQUARE OF THE COLLECTION SIZE. IN THIS STUDY GRAPH THEORY IS APPLIED TO THIS PROBLEM BY FIRST MAPPING THE CITATION GRAPH OF THE DOCUMENT COLLECTION INTO AN UNIDIMENSIONAL STORAGE ARRAY, AND THEN REDUCING THE TOTAL DISTANCE, ON THE AVERAGE, BETWEEN CONNECTED PAIRS OF DOCUMENTS. THIS IS EQUIVALENT TO REDUCING THE TOTAL STRETCHING (OBJECTIVE FUNCTION) RESULTING FROM THE MAPPING. AN ALGORITHM WHOSE COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY GROWS ONLY AS N TO THE THREE-HALVES POWER, WHERE N IS THE COLLECTION SIZE, IS PRESENTED FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THE SITUATION. THIS DOCUMENT IS AVAILABLE AS AD-652-593 FROM THE CLEARINGHOUSE FOR FEDERAL SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION, SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA 22151, FOR $3.00 FOR HARD COPY, $0.65 FOR MICROFICHE, 25 PAGES. (AUTHOR/CM)