Criteria for optimum effectiveness of information retrieval systems

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0019-9958(71)90331-7Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Three measures of effectiveness of an information retrieval system are formulated in terms of a user's estimate of the relevance of items output. In each instance the type of question logic allowed is postulated without specification of certain parameters which denote the weights attached to the question terms. The parameters are then determined to maximise the effectiveness. Their values depend on certain statistics of the data base. The search effectiveness is then optimum for the permitted form of question, the measure of output relevance, and for data bases of similar statistics. The techniques used are analogous to those used to define a matched filter and a Wiener root-mean-square filter.

Cited by (0)