A universal method of information retrieval evaluation:: the "missing" link M and the universal IR surface

The paper shows that the present evaluation methods in information retrieval (basically recall R and precision P and in some cases fallout F) lack universal comparability in the sense that their values depend on the generality of the IR problem. A solution is given by using all "parts" of the database, including the non-relevant documents and also the not-retrieved documents. It turns out that the solution is given by introducing the measure M being the fraction of the not-retrieved documents that are relevant (hence the "miss" measure). We prove that-independent of the IR problem or of the IR action-the quadruple (P. R; F; M) belongs to a universal IR surface, being the same for all IR-activities. This universality is then exploited by defining a new measure for evaluation in IR allowing for unbiased comparisons of all IR results. We also show that only using one, two or even three measures from the set {P, R, F, M} necessary leads to evaluation measures that are non-universal and hence not capable of comparing different IR situations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.