{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T14:35:59Z","timestamp":1776436559614,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,27]],"date-time":"2007-11-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1196121600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,27]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of the differences between the actual technical principles determining relevance ranking, and how relevance ranking is understood, described and evaluated by the developers of relevance ranking algorithms and librarians.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The discussion uses descriptions by PLWeb Turbo and C2 of their relevance ranking products and a librarian's description on her blog with the responses which it drew, contrasting these with relevancy as it is indicated in studies of the ISI citation record reported by White.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>The study finds that product descriptions and librarians consistently use the term \u201crelevance ranking\u201d to mean both the artificial relevance ranking by statistical methods using various surrogates assumed to reliably indicate relevance and the real relevance as determined by the searcher. The paper indicates the misunderstandings arising from this terminological confusion and its consequences in the context of the invalid user models and artificial searches which accompany discussions of \u201crelevance ranking\u201d.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>Evaluations of relevance ranking must be based on real users and real searches. Theorising relevance as a judgement about information rather than a property of information clarifies many issues.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>The design of search engines and OPACs will benefit from incorporating metadata that contain indications of user\u2010determined relevance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>The activity of subject analysis and indexing by human beings is presented as an activity identical in kind to the real searcher's determination of relevance, a definite statement of relevancy arising from a real communication situation rather than a statistically indicated probability.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/14684520710841793","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,24]],"date-time":"2007-11-24T07:02:27Z","timestamp":1195887747000},"page":"831-844","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Relevance ranking is not relevance ranking or, when the user is not the user, the search results are not search results"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"31","author":[{"given":"David","family":"Bade","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Borlund, P. (2003), \u201cThe concept of relevance in IR\u201d, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 54 No. 10, pp. 913\u201025.","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.10286"},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b2","unstructured":"Contec Group International (2005), \u201cRelevance ranking\u201d, available at: http:\/\/contecds.com\/library\/c2\/relrank.htm (accessed 9 April 2007)."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cooper, W.S. (1971), \u201cA definition of relevance for information retrieval\u201d, Information Storage and Retrieval, Vol. 7, pp. 19\u201037.","DOI":"10.1016\/0020-0271(71)90024-6"},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jacs\u00f3, P. (2006), \u201cSavvy searching: pertinence in the eye of the user\u201d, Online Information Review, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 70\u20106.","DOI":"10.1108\/14684520610650318"},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b6","unstructured":"Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (n.d.), \u201cRelevance\u201d, online."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b7","unstructured":"Saracevic, T. (1996), \u201cRelevance reconsidered '96\u201d, in Ingwersen, P. and Pors, N.W. (Eds), Proceedings of CoLIS2, Second International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science: Integration in Perspective, Royal School of Librarianship, Copenhagen, pp. 201\u201018."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b8","unstructured":"Schneider, K. (2006a), \u201cHow OPACs suck, part 1: relevance rank (or the lack of it)\u201d, available at: www.techsource.ala.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/how\u2010opacs\u2010suck\u2010part\u20101\u2010relevancerank\u2010or\u2010the\u2010lack\u2010of\u2010it.html (accessed 11 April 2007)."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b9","unstructured":"Schneider, K. (2006b), \u201cHow OPACs suck, part 2: the checklist of shame\u201d, available at: www.techsource.ala.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/how\u2010opacs\u2010suck\u2010part\u20102\u2010the\u2010checklist\u2010of\u2010shame.html (accessed 11 April 2007)."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b10","unstructured":"US House of Representatives. Office of the Law Revision Counsel (n.d.), \u201cPLWeb Turbo online user's guide\u201d, available at: http:\/\/uscode.house.gov\/help\/htmlsrc\/relrank.html (accessed 7 April 2007)."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b11","unstructured":"Weeks, D. (1963), \u201cInformation system theory as the foundation of practical design\u201d, in Howerton, P.W. (Ed.), Information Handling: First Principles, Spartan Books, Washington, DC, pp. 1\u201017."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b12","unstructured":"Weinheimer, J. (2007), \u201cRE: Weinheimer's glorified card catalog\u201d, posted to Autocat, 22 March."},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"White, H.D. (2007a), \u201cCombining bibliometrics, information retrieval, and relevance theory, part 1: first examples of a synthesis\u201d, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Vol. 58 No. 4, pp. 536\u201059.","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20543"},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_b14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"White, H.D. (2007b), \u201cCombining bibliometrics, information retrieval, and relevance theory, part 2: some implications for information science\u201d, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Vol. 58 No. 4, pp. 583\u2010605.","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20542"},{"key":"key2022031620092531500_frg1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jacs\u00f3, P. (2005), \u201cSavvy searching: relevance in the eye of the search software\u201d, Online Information Review, Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 676\u201082.","DOI":"10.1108\/14684520510638106"}],"container-title":["Online Information Review"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/14684520710841793","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/14684520710841793\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/14684520710841793\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,25]],"date-time":"2025-07-25T00:40:55Z","timestamp":1753404055000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/oir\/article\/31\/6\/831-844\/315526"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,27]]},"references-count":14,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,27]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/14684520710841793"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/14684520710841793","relation":{},"ISSN":["1468-4527"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1468-4527","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2007,11,27]]}}}