Charting search in the patent space
Overview
The nature of documents, mainly being of a highly variable structure and usually unpredictable content, implicates that when using search tools some documents are much more easily found than others. Moreover, the accessibility (or, more precisely, "findability") can differ widely when using different search tools.
The "findability" is defined in this context as a factor or value showing how easily patent documents can be found with a particular search tool. Measuring this "findability" allows comparing different tools in terms of the access they provide. The "findability" does not only include quantitative, but also qualitative components: One tool may be good for finding patents on metallurgy while another is good for finding patents on chemicals.
The goal of this project was to develop a prototype that measures and visualises "how easily" documents can be found using a particular search tool in a given collection of documents. A score is assigned to each document resembling its "findability".