Information organization and retrieval using a topic maps‐based ontology: Results of a task‐based evaluation
Myongho Yi · Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology · 2008
Abstract As information becomes richer and more complex, alternative information‐organization methods are needed to more effectively and efficiently retrieve information from various systems, including the Web. The objective of this study is to explore how a Topic Maps‐based ontology approach affects users' searching performance. Forty participants participated in a task‐based evaluation where two dependent variables, recall and search time, were measured. The results of this study indicate that a Topic Maps‐based ontology information retrieval (TOIR) system has a significant and positive effect on both recall and search time, compared to a thesaurus‐based information retrieval (TIR) system. These results suggest that the inclusion of a Topic Maps‐based ontology is a beneficial approach to take when designing information retrieval systems.