Managing structured queries in probabilistic XML retrieval systems

Focusing on the context of XML retrieval, in this paper we propose a general methodology for managing structured queries (involving both content and structure) within any given structured probabilistic information retrieval system which is able to compute posterior probabilities of relevance for structural components given a non-structured query (involving only query terms but not structural restrictions). We have tested our proposal using two specific information retrieval systems (Garnata and PF/Tijah), and the structured document collections from the last six editions of the INitiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval (INEX).