Extending Retrieval with Stepping Stones and Pathways

Abstract

This project researches an alternative interpretation of user queries and presentation of the results. Instead of returning a ranked list of documents, the result of a query is a connected network of chains of evidence. Each chain is made of a sequence of additional concepts (stepping stones). Each concept in the sequence is logically connected to the next and previous one, and the chains provide a rationale (a pathway) for the connection between the two original concepts. To increase the user's understanding of the chain, it is desirable that the stepping stones be justified by concrete documents, along with the connections (relationships) among those documents.