A language independent algorithm for single and multiple document summarization

This paper describes a method for language independent extractive summarization that relies on iterative graph-based ranking algorithms. Through evaluations performed on a single-document summarization task for English and Portuguese, we show that the method performs equally well regardless of the language. Moreover, we show how a metasummarizer relying on a layered application of techniques for single-document summarization can be turned into an effective method for multi-document summarization.