NLPX at INEX 2005

Abstract

XML information retrieval (XML-IR) systems aim to provide users with highly exhaustive and highly specific results. To interact with XML-IR systems users must express both their content and structural needs in the form of a structured query. Historically, these structured queries have been formatted using formal languages such as XPath or NEXI. Unfortunately, formal query languages are very complex and too difficult to be used by experienced, let alone casual, users and are too closely bound to the underlying physical structure of the collection. Hence, recent research has investigated the idea of specifying users’ content and structural requirements via natural language queries (NLQs). The NLP track was established at INEX 2004 to promote research into this area, and QUT participated with the system NLPX. Here, we discuss changes we’ve made to the system since last year, as well as our participation in INEX 2005.