Discussion of evaluation methodology in information retrieval focuses on the average precision over a set of fixed recall values in an effort to evaluate the retrieval effectiveness of a search algorithm. Highlights include a review of traditional evaluation methodology with examples; and a statistical inference methodology called bootstrap.…

Presents a new model for combining multiple sources of evidence in database merging based on logistic regression, and occurring only when ranks are available as a key to be used to merge different ranked lists obtained by various retrieval schemes. Results indicate better retrieval effectiveness than other approaches. (LRW)

Discusses the role of search engines in Web usability and analyzes and evaluates the retrieval effectiveness of various indexing and searching strategies on a new Web text collection. Highlights include preprocessing techniques that might improve retrieval effectiveness; and hyperlinks as useful sources of evidence in improving retrieval…

Discusses the use of hyperlinks for improving information retrieval on the World Wide Web and proposes a general model for using hyperlinks based on Probabilistic Argumentation Systems. Topics include propositional logic, knowledge, and uncertainty; assumptions; using hyperlinks to modify document score and rank; and estimating the popularity of a…

Proposes a general stopword list and a simple stemming procedure that can be used to adapt search mechanisms for French-language databases. Describes document-retrieval experiments with French test collections aimed at improving retrieval effectiveness. (LRW)

Metasearching of online current news services is a potentially useful Web application of distributed information retrieval techniques. Reports experiences in building a metasearcher designed to provide up-to-date searching over a significant number of rapidly changing current news sites, focusing on how to merge results from the search engines at…

Suggests a new ranking scheme especially adapted for hypertext environments in order to produce more effective retrieval results and still use Boolean search strategies. Topics include Boolean ranking schemes; single-term indexing and term weighting; fuzzy set theory extension; and citation indexing. (64 references) (Author/LRW)

Describes a method based on Bayesian networks for searching hypertext systems. Discussion covers the use of Bayesian networks for structuring index terms and representing user information needs; use of link semantics based on constrained spreading activation to find starting points for browsing; and evaluation of a prototype system. (64…

Proposes a new learning algorithm to improve the retrieval effectiveness of the search system used in the hypertext environment using an extended Boolean model with links to improve the ranking of retrieved items. Highlights include the basic retrieval scheme, the learning scheme, and a review of basic probabilistic retrieval models. (Contains 32…

Discusses cross-language, multilingual, and bilingual information retrieval on the Web; evaluates retrieval effectiveness of indexing and search strategies based on test collections from CLEF (Cross-Language Evaluation Forum) in English, French, German, and Italian; and suggests and evaluates database merging strategies. Appendices include…

Proposes an extended vector-processing scheme that extracts information from hypertext links to enhance retrieval effectiveness. Evaluates the impact of bibliographic references, bibliographic coupling, cocitation and document representative relationships. Shows that hypertext links do not always improve average precision, and interdocument…

Discusses suffix stripping algorithms used in information retrieval to cluster words derived from a common root under the same stem, and proposes a suffixing algorithm for French which uses grammatical categories to enhance the stemming process. An evaluation of the algorithm is discussed, and an analysis of errors is described. (17 references)…