The performance of cited references as an approach to information retrieval
Lanju Lee Yoon · Journal of the American Society for Information Science · 1994
This study explored the relationship between the number of cited references used in a citation search and retrieval effectiveness, a relatively unstudied phenomenon. It focused on analyzing, in terms of information retrieval effectiveness, the overlap among postings sets retrieved by various combinations of cited references. The findings from three case studies clearly showed that the more cited references used for a citation search, the better the performance, in terms of retrieving more relevant documents, up to a point of diminishing returns. Generally the overall level of overlap among relevant documents sets was found to be low. Therefore, if only some of the cited references among many candidates are used for a citation search, a significant proportion of relevant documents may be missed. In addition, the characteristics of cited references showed that some variables are good indicators to predict relevance to a given question. The findings of this comprehensive exploratory study are of interest for both theoretical and practical reasons. It should be noted that the three case studies were in only one subject—the library and information science literature—an employed limited data using the 20 most recent citations. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.