The Feasibility Study of Re-ranking Retrieved Results Based on Readability Indicators: the Case of Computer and Information Technology Subject Field

This research aims at studying the feasibility of applying readability indicators for re-ranking the search results. The computer science and information technology is the case and the test-bed is the retrieved documents from the RICeST Database of Persian Articles. Using readability indicators has had a long tradition in the field of education. Yet applying these indicators for detecting the ease of the text for potential reader in information retrieval is a rather new approach towards the matter. Google Trends was used to develop a set of frequently searched keywords for performing searches. The retrieved documents were analyzed based on Flesch-Dayani, Document Scope, and Document Cohesion readability indicators. The results convey that the combination of the Document Scope and Document Cohesion is possible and based on the results of the second phase of the study, ranking the retrieved results based on this combined indicator is closer to potential non-expert users’ rankings.