Relevance weighting of search terms

1976/05/01 by Stephen Robertson, Karen Spärck Jones · 13 citations
Computer Science · #Information Retrieval and Search Behavior #Image Retrieval and Classification Techniques #Data Management and Algorithms

paper · doi:10.1002/asi.4630270302

openalex publication_date 1976/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines statistical techniques for exploiting relevance information to weight search terms. These techniques are presented as a natural extension of weighting methods using information about the distribution of index terms in documents in general. A series of relevance weighting functions is derived and is justified by theoretical considerations. In particular, it is shown that specific weighted search methods are implied by a general probabilistic theory of retrieval. Different applications of relevance weighting are illustrated by experimental results for test collections.

Citations

• A STATISTICAL INTERPRETATION OF TERM SPECIFICITY AND ITS APPLICATION IN RETRIEVAL

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• Stephen Robertson (computer scientist) [wikipedia]