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How to Calculate Recall Ratios

If you are searching through databases and looking for particular terms, there is an inverse relationship between the precision of your results and the recall ratio of those results. For instance, a search for an article about Lyndon Johnson's elementary school teacher that uses just the term "Lyndon Johnson" will have many results, but very few will precisely match what you are looking for. The recall ratio is a simple relationship between the desired information and the total information available.

Instructions

- 1
  Enter the search terms into the field on the search page and click "Enter" or "Search" (depending on the particular database you are using).
- 2
  Record the number of results that you receive. Cull out the ones that are not relevant and then record the number of relevant results left.
- 3
  Run the same search on several different databases and record the number of relevant results that you get. Be sure that you only count matching articles that appear in multiple databases just once, otherwise the redundancy will skew your findings.
- 4
  Divide the second answer from Step 2 (the relevant results) by the total number of relevant results from Step 3. Multiply this answer by 100 to get a percentage that reflects the recall ratio.

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