Relevance status value model of Index Islamicus on Islamic History and Civilizations

Abstract

Purpose – The purposes of this study were to measure the relevance status of Index Islamicus, evaluate the semantic correlation between a query and documents and inquire the basis of its rank. Sorting the retrieved results from the most relevant to the least relevant is the common option of an information retrieval system. This sorting mechanism or relevance judgment is computed by measuring closeness of query with its documents. Design/methodology/approach – Forming up 100 queries on Islamic History and Civilizations, with two indexing elements (keyword and concept), a laboratory experiment was generated on its first ten items of the rank. Throughout an experimental research design, the relevance status value formula was used to measure system-computed rank and compare it with mean average precision. Findings – The results showed that the average status value of Index Islamicus’s ranking on relevance criterion was 18 per cent effective in terms of retrieving precise documents. Despite the main focus of this study being only on one subject domain and the items calculated were only 1,000, this small percentage of its ranking mechanism proved that semantic correlations between queries with subject domain did not achieve the satisfactory level. Research limitations/implications – Implication of this study could be a guideline for further research on ranking mechanism of other search engines because the limitation of this study was Index Islamicus being the only database, which was the focus of this study. Practical implications – Throughout this study, Index Islamicus would be benefited knowing the status of its ranking mechanism as well as other databases can make further research on their own ranking method following this study. Social implications – Researchers and vendors of online databases can ensure their users a true platform of search engine with a proper ranking list. Originality/value – Relevance status value model for Index Islamicus on Islamic History and Civilization that allows the system to rank documents according to the match between document and query and gives the idea of a better index. The model improves the system’s ranking mechanism, and promotes the use of semantic relationships. This research promotes the computation of relevance status value by domain for capturing subject-specific relevance criteria and semantic relationships.