Abstract:
Information retrieval is a wide, often loosely-defined term but in these pages I shall be concerned only with automatic information retrieval systems. Automatic as opposed to manual and information as opposed to data or fact. Unfortunately the word information can be very misleading. In the context of information retrieval (IR), information, in the technical meaning given in Shannon's theory of communication, is not readily measured (Shannon and Weaver1). In fact, in many cases one can adequately describe the kind of retrieval by simply substituting 'document' for 'information'. Nevertheless, 'information retrieval' has become accepted as a description of the kind of work published by Cleverdon, Salton, Sparck Jones, Lancaster and others. A perfectly straightforward definition along these lines is given by Lancaster2: 'Information retrieval is the term conventionally, though somewhat inaccurately, applied to the type of activity discussed in this volume. An information retrieval system does not inform (i.e. change the knowledge of) the user on the subject of his inquiry. It merely informs on the existence (or non-existence) and whereabouts of documents relating to his request.' This specifically excludes Question-Answering systems as typified by Winograd3 and those described by Minsky4. It also excludes data retrieval systems such as used by, say, the stock exchange for on-line quotations.
Citations
|
192
|
Automatic Information Organization and Retrieval
– Salton
- 1968
|
|
186
|
Practical Nonparametric Statistics
– Conover
- 1980
|
|
109
|
Relevance: a review of and a framework for the thinking on the notion in information science
– Saracevic
- 1975
|
|
94
|
Factors Determining the Performance of Indexing Systems
– Cleverdon, Mills, et al.
- 1966
|
|
73
|
Rijsbergen. The use of hierarchic clustering in information retrieval
– Jardine, van
- 1971
|
|
61
|
A definition of relevance for information retrieval
– Cooper
- 1971
|
|
61
|
Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences. 2 nd Edition
– Siegel, Castellan
- 1988
|
|
58
|
Expected Search Length: A Single Measure of Retrieval Effectiveness Based on the Weak Ordering Action of Retrieval Systems
– Cooper
- 1968
|
|
35
|
The logic of questions and answers
– Belnap, Steel
- 1976
|
|
20
|
Information retrieval systems
– Swets
- 1963
|
|
14
|
Basic Concepts of Measurement
– ELLIS
- 1966
|
|
14
|
On the inverse relationship of recall and precision
– Cleverdon
- 1972
|
|
10
|
On selecting a measure of retrieval effectiveness. Part 1
– Cooper
- 1973
|
|
9
|
The parametric description of retrieval tests, Part 2: 'Overall measures
– Robertson
- 1969
|
|
7
|
On relevance as a measure
– Goffman
- 1964
|
|
6
|
Distance Between Sets as an Objective Measure of Retrieval Effectiveness
– Heine
- 1973
|
|
6
|
Panel on Evaluation
– King
- 1993
|
|
6
|
Economics of information systems
– Marschak
|
|
5
|
The probabilistic character of relevance
– Robertson
- 1977
|
|
5
|
The "generality" effect and the retrieval evaluation for large collections
– Salton
- 1972
|
|
4
|
An analysis of questions: Preliminary report. Scientific Report TM-1287
– Belnap
- 1963
|
|
4
|
Retrieval effectiveness
– Rijsbergen
- 1979
|
|
4
|
Is user satisfaction a hobgoblin
– SOERGEL
- 1976
|
|
4
|
A methodology for test and evaluation of information retrieval systems
– GOFFMAN, NEWILL
- 1966
|
|
3
|
A Theoretical Model of the Retrieval Characteristics of Information Retrieval Systems
– ROBERTSON
- 1976
|
|
3
|
Information storage and retrieval systems
– SENKO
- 1969
|
|
3
|
Report of an Information
– KEEN, DIGGER
- 1972
|
|
3
|
The decision-theory approach to the evaluation of information retrieval systems
– GOOD
- 1967
|
|
2
|
Evaluation Parameters
– Keen
- 1967
|
|
2
|
When the most "pertinent" document should not be retrieved - an analysis
– Bookstein
- 1977
|
|
2
|
A statistical analysis of retrieval tests: a Bayesian approach
– ROBERTSON, TEATHER
- 1974
|
|
2
|
The inverse relationship of precision and recall in terms of the Swets' model
– HEINE
- 1973
|
|
1
|
Stein's parador in statistics
– EFRON, MORRIS
- 1977
|
|
1
|
A measure of "Efficiency Factor" - communication theory applied to document selection systems
– CAWKELL
- 1975
|
|
1
|
On relevance
– WEILER
- 1962
|
|
1
|
On the notion of relevance
– NEGOITA
- 1973
|
|
1
|
A cost model for evaluating information retrieval systems
– COOPER
- 1972
|
