Improving document retrieval by automatic query expansion using collaborative learning of term-based concepts

Query expansion methods have been studied for a long time - with debatable success in many instances. In this paper, a new approach is presented based on using term concepts learned by other queries. Two important issues with query expansion are addressed: the selection and the weighing of additional search terms. In contrast to other methods, the regarded query is expanded by adding those terms which are most similar to the concept of individual query terms, rather than selecting terms that are similar to the complete query or that are directly similar to the query terms. Experiments have shown that this kind of query expansion results in notable improvements of the retrieval effectiveness if measured the recall/precision in comparison to the standard vector space model and to the pseudo relevance feedback. This approach can be used to improve the retrieval of documents in Digital Libraries, in Document Management Systems, in the WWW etc.