Estimating effective display size in online retrieval systems

Abstract This article outlines a problem in commercial online retrieval systems, provides a review of the relevant literature, and presents a solution for a special case of the problem. Previous investigators have considered how to best determine, for a ranked list of records retrieved from an online retrieval system, whether or not the user should continue to display the output. This article examines the problem of how effective display size can be estimated as a means of assisting the users of commercial online retrieval systems. Although no experimental results are as yet available, the approach presented here will provide a guide to and prolegomenon for systematic study of the problem, as well as a method for providing the estimated number of relevant records remaining in a retrieved set ranked by a retrieval status value.

[1]  William Cooper,et al.  A General Mathematical Model for Information Retrieval Systems , 1976, The Library Quarterly.

[2]  John A. Swets,et al.  Effectiveness of information retrieval methods , 1969 .

[3]  Donald H. Kraft,et al.  A decision theory view of the information retrieval situation: An operations research approach , 1973, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[4]  William S. Cooper,et al.  On selecting a measure of retrieval effectiveness part II. Implementation of the philosophy , 1973, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[5]  Tadeusz Radecki,et al.  Incorporation of Relevance Feedback into Boolean Retrieval System , 1982, SIGIR.

[6]  Paul B. Kantor.  A model for the stopping behavior of users of online systems , 1987 .

[7]  Stephen P. Harter,et al.  A probabilistic approach to automatic keyword indexing. Part II. An algorithm for probabilistic indexing , 1975, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[8]  Stephen P. Harter,et al.  A probabilistic approach to automatic keyword indexing. Part I. On the Distribution of Specialty Words in a Technical Literature , 1975, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[9]  Don R. Swanson,et al.  A decision theoretic foundation for indexing , 1975, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[10]  W. Bruce Croft.  Document representation in probabilistic models of information retrieval , 1981, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[11]  Tadeusz Radecki.  Reducing the Perils of Merging Boolean and Weighted Retrieval Systems , 1982, J. Documentation.

[12]  Donald H. Kraft,et al.  Stopping rules and their effect on expected search length , 1979, Inf. Process. Manag..

[13]  W. Bruce Croft,et al.  Using Probabilistic Models of Document Retrieval without Relevance Information , 1979, J. Documentation.

[14]  Abraham Bookstein,et al.  Information retrieval: A sequential learning process , 1983, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[15]  M. E. Maron,et al.  On indexing, retrieval and the meaning of about , 1977, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[16]  Donald H. Kraft,et al.  A Bayesian approach to user stopping rules for information retrieval systems , 1981, Inf. Process. Manag..

[17]  Terry Noreault,et al.  Automatic ranked output from boolean searches in SIRE , 1977, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[18]  Donald H. Kraft,et al.  Operations Research Applied to Document Indexing and Retrieval Decisions , 1977, JACM.

[19]  Tadeusz Radecki.  A probabilistic approach to information retrieval in systems with boolean search request formulations , 1982, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[20]  Michael McGill,et al.  Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval , 1983 .

[21]  M. E. Maron,et al.  On Relevance, Probabilistic Indexing and Information Retrieval , 1960, JACM.

[22]  Boyce Br.  Cost effectiveness and MEDLINE printing. , 1984 .

[23]  Tadeusz Radecki,et al.  Probabilistic methods for ranking output documents in conventional Boolean retrieval systems , 1988, Inf. Process. Manag..

[24]  Donald H. Kraft.  A threshold rule applied to the retrieval decision model , 1978, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[25]  H M Schoolman,et al.  Automated information retrieval in science and technology. , 1980, Science.

[26]  Abraham Bookstein.  On the perils of merging boolean and weighted retrieval systems , 1978, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[27]  William S. Cooper,et al.  On selecting a measure of retrieval effectiveness , 1973, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[28]  William S. Cooper,et al.  Foundations of Probabilistic and Utility-Theoretic Indexing , 1978, JACM.

[29]  B Carlin,et al.  Online and offline print costs in MEDLINE. , 1984, Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.

[30]  W. S. Cooper.  Expected search length: A single measure of retrieval effectiveness based on the weak ordering action of retrieval systems , 1968 .

[31]  Donald H. Kraft,et al.  Evaluation of information retrieval systems: A decision theory approach , 1978, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[32]  J A Swets,et al.  Information Retrieval Systems. , 1963, Science.