Adaptive ranking system for information retrieval
First Claim
1. A method for adaptive, multilevel record ranking by a computer system having a monitor for output display of record responses to a query directed to a full-text data base whereby retrieved records are quantitatively ranked with respect to their relevance to the terms of a query, comprising the computer implemented steps of:
- receiving a set Q of query terms t, wherein a term t may include more than one word, to form a query full-text searching;
receiving a plurality of ordered relevance factors to modify said query terms onto a number of levels;
receiving, for each relevance factor F, assigned values for attributes of properties of said query terms t which affect the relevance value of any record r to query terms t for each level;
searching a full text data base to retrieve records containing said query terms t;
calculating, for each query term t, a first relevance weight for each retrieved record r as a function of its occurrence in record r and, for a term having more than one word, the distance between the nearest occurrences of words of said term t in record r;
calculating, for each query term t and for each of said attributes, a second relevance weight value for each retrieved record r as a function of said first relevance weight value and said attributes affecting said relevance factor;
calculating, for each retrieved record r, a third relevance weight as a function of all of said second relevance weight values for all of said query terms t appearing in said record r;
using said third relevance weight as the weight of record r to determine its rank at each level;
ranking all retrieved records according to the quantitative values of said third relevance weights at each level with respect to all query terms in said query Q; and
displaying retrieved records in ranked order.
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Abstract
An adaptive record ranking method for full text information retrieval, which quantifies the relevance of retrieved records to query terms occurring in said record. The method utilizes a multilevel weighting technique which permits user input to affect record weighting at each level of the ranking process. The method utilizes weighted attributes of properties of terms occurring in the records of the data base and compensates for the distance between adjacent words of complex terms. The method has been implemented on large full text data bases and the resulting rankings achieve a relatively high level of precision in ranking the relevance of retrieved records to a user query.
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Citations
8 Claims
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1. A method for adaptive, multilevel record ranking by a computer system having a monitor for output display of record responses to a query directed to a full-text data base whereby retrieved records are quantitatively ranked with respect to their relevance to the terms of a query, comprising the computer implemented steps of:
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receiving a set Q of query terms t, wherein a term t may include more than one word, to form a query full-text searching; receiving a plurality of ordered relevance factors to modify said query terms onto a number of levels; receiving, for each relevance factor F, assigned values for attributes of properties of said query terms t which affect the relevance value of any record r to query terms t for each level; searching a full text data base to retrieve records containing said query terms t; calculating, for each query term t, a first relevance weight for each retrieved record r as a function of its occurrence in record r and, for a term having more than one word, the distance between the nearest occurrences of words of said term t in record r; calculating, for each query term t and for each of said attributes, a second relevance weight value for each retrieved record r as a function of said first relevance weight value and said attributes affecting said relevance factor; calculating, for each retrieved record r, a third relevance weight as a function of all of said second relevance weight values for all of said query terms t appearing in said record r; using said third relevance weight as the weight of record r to determine its rank at each level; ranking all retrieved records according to the quantitative values of said third relevance weights at each level with respect to all query terms in said query Q; and displaying retrieved records in ranked order. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification