A user-centred evaluation of ranking algorithms for interactive query expansion

The evaluation of 6 ranking algorithms for the ranking of terms for query expansion is discussed within the context of an investigation of interactive query expansion and relevance feedback in a real operational environment. The yardstick for the evaluation was provided by the user relevance judgements on the lists of the candidate terms for query expansion. The evaluation focuses on the similarities in the performance of the different algorithms and how the algorithms with similar performance treat terms.