SoftwareQuality/jabref/docs/decisions/0022-remove-stop-words-during-query-transformation.md
Artem Semenovykh 415abbc47b import jabref
2024-11-16 11:43:42 +01:00

1.3 KiB

parent nav_order
Decision Records 22

Remove stop words during query transformation

Context and Problem Statement

When querying for a title of a paper, the title might contain stop words such as "a", "for", "and". Some data providers return 0 results when querying for a stop word. When transforming a query to the Lucene syntax, the default Boolean operator and is used. When using IEEE, this often leads to zero search results.

Decision Drivers

  • Consistent to the Google search engine
  • Allow reproducible searches
  • Avoid WTFs on the user's side

Considered Options

  • Remove stop words from the query
  • Automatically enclose in quotes if no Boolean operator is contained

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: "Remove stop words from the query", because comes out best.

Pros and Cons of the Options

Remove stop words from the query

  • Good, because good search results if no Boolean operators are used
  • Bad, because when using complex queries and stop words are used alone, they are silently removed

Automatically enclose in quotes if no Boolean operator is contained

  • Good, because good search results if no Boolean operators are used
  • Bad, because silently leads to different results
  • Bad, because inconsistent to Google behavior