System and Method For Ranking Search Results Within Citation Intensive Document Collections

Abstract

Systems and methods facilitate a search and identify documents and associated metadata reflecting content of the documents. In one implementation, a method receives a query comprising a set of search terms, identifies a stored document in response to the query, and determines a score value for the retrieved document based on a similarity between one or more of the query search terms and metadata associated with the identified document. The method locates the identified document in a citation network of baseline query results, the citation network comprising a first set of documents that cite to the identified document and a second set of documents cited to by the identified document. The method further determines a new score value of the identified document as a function of the score value and a quantity and a quality of documents within the first and second set of documents.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computerized method for calculating a normalized activity score value to rank an identified document, the method comprising:
 determining a number of times an identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document;   determining a probability distribution that individual documents within the subject matter community are cited a variable number of times by other individual documents in the subject matter community;   calculating a probability function by performing a regression on the probability distribution;   calculating the activity score value according to an activity score function formulated as an inverse of the probability function;   storing in computer memory a ranking of the identified document based on the activity score value; and   outputting on a display device, a report reflecting the ranking of the identified document.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising weighting the activity score value by an age of the identified document. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the subject matter community comprises a jurisdiction of a legal community. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the calculating the activity score further comprises:
 generating an activity score vector;   calculating an individual activity score value for dimensions of the activity score vector, wherein at least one of the dimensions is associated with the number of times the identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document;   weighing at least one of the individual activity score values by an age of the identified document; and   adding the individual activity score values to obtain a total activity score value.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the dimensions of the activity score vector comprise at least one of U.S. Supreme Court cites, law review articles, treatises, signal, or treatment in addition to the dimension associated with the number of times the identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the activity score value of the identified document is normalized in relation to other documents in the subject matter community. 
     
     
         7 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for calculating a normalized activity score to rank an identified document, the method comprising:
 identifying a stored document;   determining a number of times the identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document;   determining a probability distribution that individual documents within the subject matter community are cited a variable number of times by other individual documents in the subject matter community;   calculating a probability function by performing a regression on the probability distribution;   calculating the activity score value according to an activity score function formulated as an inverse of the probability function;   storing in computer memory a ranking of the identified document based on the activity score value; and   outputting on a display device, a report reflecting the ranking of the identified document.   
     
     
         8 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 7 , the method further comprising weighing the activity score value by an age of the identified document. 
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 7 , wherein the subject matter community comprises a jurisdiction of a legal community. 
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the calculating the activity score further comprises:
 generating an activity score vector;   calculating an individual activity score value for dimensions of the activity score vector, wherein at least one of the dimensions is associated with the number of times the identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document;   weighing at least one of the individual activity score values by an age of the identified document; and   adding the individual activity score values to obtain a total activity score value.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 10 , wherein the dimensions of the activity score vector comprise at least one of U.S. Supreme Court cites, law review articles, treatises, signal, or treatment in addition to the dimension associated with the number of times the identified document was cited in a subject matter community of the identified document. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 10 , wherein the activity score value of the identified document is normalized in relation to other documents in the subject matter community.