Study and test of a methodology for laboratory evaluation of message retrieval systems. ESD-TR-66-405.

Abstract : The main objectives of the analyses include: (1) A research study of techniques for the evaluation of associative and coordinate message retrieval methods. (2) The preparation and analysis of machine-readable test corpora suitable for experiments with associative message retrieval methods. These corpora consist of approximately 10,000 messages and 1,000 index terms each; one is manually indexed, the other is automatically indexed. (3) Experimental application of the evaluation techniques to the test corpora with the aim of achieving a comparison between conventional and associative retrieval methods. (4) Investigation of the possibility of extending the associative retrieval methods to apply to very large data bases in conjunction with real-time processing modes.