Challenges of Mathematical Information Retrievalin the NTCIR-11 Math Wikipedia Task

Moritz Schubotz, Abdou Youssef, Volker Markl, Howard S. Cohl

Abstract: Mathematical Information Retrieval concerns retrieving information related to a particular mathematical concept. The NTCIR-11 Math Task develops an evaluation test collection for document sections retrieval of scientific articles based on human generated topics. Those topics involve a combination of formula patterns and keywords. In addition, the optional Wikipedia Task provides a test collection for retrieval of individual mathematical formula from Wikipedia based on search topics that contain exactly one formula pattern. We developed a framework for automatic query generation and immediate evaluation. This paper discusses our dataset preparation, topic generation and evaluation methods, and summarizes the results of the participants, with a special focus on the Wikipedia Task.