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Accuracy evaluation of methods and techniques in Web-based question answering systems: a survey

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Abstract

Question answering (QA) systems answer the queries of users efficiently in the least amount of time. A researcher has to decide which among various methods and techniques available will be used to retrieve accurate answers when developing a QA system. This step creates an overhead before making a selection. The study highlights the methods and techniques that perform well in terms of the accuracy of answers provided. Nine Web-based question answering systems were consulted, and the applied methods and techniques evaluated on the basis of the percentage of questions correctly answered and the mean reciprocal rank evaluation measures. Results were discussed using three key stages involved in a QA system: answer extraction, scoring of answers, and answer aggregation. Results show some techniques have higher accuracy of answers than others. Not all methods in QA systems can improve the accuracy of answers individually, but the methods used in combination obtain greater effect. The results can be used to select methods and techniques optimal for producing highly accurate scores without spending time on benchmarking.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by UMRG Programme RP059A-17SBS from Universiti Malaya and the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Asad Ali Shah

  2. Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Sri Devi Ravana, Suraya Hamid & Maizatul Akmar Ismail

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  1. Asad Ali Shah
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Correspondence to Sri Devi Ravana.

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Shah, A.A., Ravana, S.D., Hamid, S. et al. Accuracy evaluation of methods and techniques in Web-based question answering systems: a survey. Knowl Inf Syst 58, 611–650 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10115-018-1203-0

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