Using long queries in a passage retrieval system

Abstract

Previous works in Information Retrieval show that using pieces of text obtain better results than using the whole document as the basic unit to compare with the user’s query. This kind of IR systems is usually called Passage Retrieval (PR). However, there is not a general agreement about how one should define those pieces of text (also known as passages), in order to obtain an optimum performance. This paper proposes a PR system based on a novel selection of variable size passages. It presents an evaluation that shows better results than a standard IR system and several well-known PR systems. Also, the influence of short queries with reference to long queries is evaluated.