Three approaches to measuring recall on the Web: a systematic review
ISSN: 0264-0473
Article publication date: 10 June 2020
Issue publication date: 21 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a review on the use of the recall metric for evaluating information retrieval systems, especially search engines.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper investigates different researchers’ views about recall metrics.
Findings
Five different definitions for recall were identified. For the first group, recall refers to completeness, but it does not specify where all the relevant documents are located. For the second group, recall refers to retrieving all the relevant documents from the collection. However, it seems that the term “collection” is ambiguous. For the third group (first approach), collection means the index of search engines and, for the fourth group (second approach), collection refers to the Web. For the fifth group (third approach), ranking of the retrieved documents should also be accounted for in calculating recall.
Practical implications
It can be said that in the first, second and third approaches, the components of the retrieval algorithm, the retrieval algorithm and crawler, and the retrieval algorithm and crawler and ranker, respectively, are evaluated. To determine the effectiveness of search engines for the use of users, it is better to use the third approach in recall measurement.
Originality/value
The value of this paper is to collect, identify and analyse literature that is used in recall. In addition, different views of researchers about recall are identified.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Professor Jeonghyun (Annie) Kim, Department of Information Science, University of North Texas; Professor John M. Budd, Professor Emeritus, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, College of Education, University of Missouri; Mr Iman Tahamtan, Graduate Research Assistant, School of Information Sciences, College of Communication and Information, University of Tennessee; Mr Mohammad Dolati, PhD student of Plant Biotechnology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad; and Anonymous Reviewers for valuable comments that greatly improved the manuscript.
Citation
Zeynali Tazehkandi, M. and Nowkarizi, M. (2020), "Three approaches to measuring recall on the Web: a systematic review", The Electronic Library, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 477-492. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-12-2019-0287
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited