# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/karen-sparck-jones
# Generated: 2026-08-15T04:49:07.992Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/karen-sparck-jones"
name: "Karen Spärck Jones"
slug: "karen-sparck-jones"
description: "Karen Ida Boalth Spärck Jones was a self-taught programmer and a pioneering British computer and information scientist responsible for the concept of inverse document frequency (IDF), a technology that underlies most modern search engines. She was an advocate for women in computer science, her slogan being, \"Computing is too important to be left to men.\" In 2019, The New York Times published her belated obituary in its series Overlooked, calling her \"a pioneer of computer science for work combining statistics and linguistics, and an advocate for women in the field.\" From 2008, to recognise her achievements in the fields of information retrieval (IR) and natural language processing (NLP), the Karen Spärck Jones Award is awarded annually to a recipient for outstanding research in one or both of her fields."
tagline: "British computer scientist (1935–2007)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "female"
country:
  name: "United Kingdom"
  isoCode: "GB"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1935-08-26"
deathDate: "2007-04-04"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           52.39
  momentum:             4.73076923076923
  historical:           19.51548266666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
platforms:
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/ksj21"
sources:
  - url: "https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81"
    title: "Карен Спарк Джонс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86_%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83_%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B2"
    title: "كارين سبارك جونز"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86_%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%83_%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B2"
    title: "كارين سبارك جونز"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%86_%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B2"
    title: "کارن جونز"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%86_%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B2"
    title: "کارن جونز"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%9F_%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A7%D7%A1_%D7%92'%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%A1"
    title: "קארן ספארקס ג'ונס"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://kk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA_%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81"
    title: "Карен Спарк Джонс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%2C_%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA"
    title: "Джонс, Карен Спарк"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA_%D0%8F%D0%BE%D1%83%D0%BD%D1%81"
    title: "Карен Спарк Џоунс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sp%C3%A4rck_Jones"
    title: "Karen Spärck Jones"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B2%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%99_%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%9B%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%84_%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AA%E0%B9%8C"
    title: "คาเรน สปาร์ค โจนส์"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14254"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump