Query Performance Prediction: Theory, Techniques and Applications

Query performance prediction (QPP) is a key task in information retrieval (IR), focusing on estimating the retrieval quality of a given query without relying on human-labeled relevance judgments. Over the decades, QPP has gained increasing significance, with a surge in research activity in recent years. It has proven to benefit various aspects of retrieval, such as optimizing retrieval effectiveness by selecting the most appropriate ranking function for each query.