Category: IR
Journal: Information Processing and Management
Abstract: This paper evaluates the effectiveness of query
        expansion strategies on a MEDLINE test collection
        using Cornell University's SMART retrieval system. 
        Three expansion strategies are tested on their ability
        to identify MeSH terms for user queries: expansion
        using an inter-field statistical thesaurus, expansion
        via retrieval feedback and expansion using a combined
        approach. These expansion strategies do not require
        prior relevance decisions. The study compares
        retrieval effectiveness using the original unexpanded
        and the alternative expanded user queries on a
        collection of 75 queries and 2234 MEDLINE citations. 
        Retrieval effectiveness is assesses using eleven point
        average precision scores (11-AvgP). The combination of
        expansion using the thesaurus followed by retrieval
        feedback gives the best improvement of 17% over a
        baseline performance of 0.5169 11-AvgP. However this
        improvement is almost identical to that achieved by
        expansion via retrieval feedback (16.4%). Query
        expansion using the inter-field thesaurus gives a
        significant but lower performance improvement (9.9%)
        over the same baseline. This study recommends query
        expansion using retrieval feedback for adding MeSH
        search terms to a users initial query.
Number: 4
Bibtype: Article
URL: http://bubl.ac.uk/journals/lis/fj/ipam/v32n0496.htm
Pages: 431-443
Month: jul
Author: Padmini Srinivasan
Title: Query Expansion and MEDLINE
Year: 1996
Date: 2003/08/01 04:59:51
Volume: 32