Combining Query Performance Predictors: A Reproducibility Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Saha, Sourav, Datta, Suchana, Roy, Dwaipayan, Mitra, Mandar, Greene, Derek
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Saha, Sourav
Datta, Suchana
Roy, Dwaipayan
Mitra, Mandar
Greene, Derek
author_facet Saha, Sourav
Datta, Suchana
Roy, Dwaipayan
Mitra, Mandar
Greene, Derek
contents A large number of approaches to Query Performance Prediction (QPP) have been proposed over the last two decades. As early as 2009, Hauff et al. [28] explored whether different QPP methods may be combined to improve prediction quality. Since then, significant research has been done both on QPP approaches, as well as their evaluation. This study revisits Hauff et al.s work to assess the reproducibility of their findings in the light of new prediction methods, evaluation metrics, and datasets. We expand the scope of the earlier investigation by: (i) considering post-retrieval methods, including supervised neural techniques (only pre-retrieval techniques were studied in [28]); (ii) using sMARE for evaluation, in addition to the traditional correlation coefficients and RMSE; and (iii) experimenting with additional datasets (Clueweb09B and TREC DL). Our results largely support previous claims, but we also present several interesting findings. We interpret these findings by taking a more nuanced look at the correlation between QPP methods, examining whether they capture diverse information or rely on overlapping factors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_24251
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Combining Query Performance Predictors: A Reproducibility Study
Saha, Sourav
Datta, Suchana
Roy, Dwaipayan
Mitra, Mandar
Greene, Derek
Information Retrieval
A large number of approaches to Query Performance Prediction (QPP) have been proposed over the last two decades. As early as 2009, Hauff et al. [28] explored whether different QPP methods may be combined to improve prediction quality. Since then, significant research has been done both on QPP approaches, as well as their evaluation. This study revisits Hauff et al.s work to assess the reproducibility of their findings in the light of new prediction methods, evaluation metrics, and datasets. We expand the scope of the earlier investigation by: (i) considering post-retrieval methods, including supervised neural techniques (only pre-retrieval techniques were studied in [28]); (ii) using sMARE for evaluation, in addition to the traditional correlation coefficients and RMSE; and (iii) experimenting with additional datasets (Clueweb09B and TREC DL). Our results largely support previous claims, but we also present several interesting findings. We interpret these findings by taking a more nuanced look at the correlation between QPP methods, examining whether they capture diverse information or rely on overlapping factors.
title Combining Query Performance Predictors: A Reproducibility Study
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.24251