{"title":"A supervised learning approach to rankability","authors":"Nathan McJames , David Malone , Oliver Mason","doi":"10.1016/j.cor.2025.107049","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rankability of data is a novel problem that considers the ability of a dataset, represented as a graph, to produce a <em>meaningful</em> ranking of the items it contains. To study this concept, a number of rankability measures have been proposed, based on comparisons to a complete dominance graph via combinatorial and linear algebraic methods. Interest in this field has been steadily expanding, with a growing appreciation for the significance of evaluating rankability across diverse applications. Consequently, the validation of these rankability methodologies in different scenarios holds paramount importance. In this paper, we review existing measures of rankability and highlight some questions to which they give rise. We go on to introduce a new framework designed to evaluate rankability with a tailored approach, one that allows for efficient estimation in specific problem domains. Finally, we present a comparative analysis of these metrics by applying them to both synthetic and real-life sports data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10542,"journal":{"name":"Computers & Operations Research","volume":"180 ","pages":"Article 107049"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computers & Operations Research","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305054825000772","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The rankability of data is a novel problem that considers the ability of a dataset, represented as a graph, to produce a meaningful ranking of the items it contains. To study this concept, a number of rankability measures have been proposed, based on comparisons to a complete dominance graph via combinatorial and linear algebraic methods. Interest in this field has been steadily expanding, with a growing appreciation for the significance of evaluating rankability across diverse applications. Consequently, the validation of these rankability methodologies in different scenarios holds paramount importance. In this paper, we review existing measures of rankability and highlight some questions to which they give rise. We go on to introduce a new framework designed to evaluate rankability with a tailored approach, one that allows for efficient estimation in specific problem domains. Finally, we present a comparative analysis of these metrics by applying them to both synthetic and real-life sports data.
期刊介绍:
Operations research and computers meet in a large number of scientific fields, many of which are of vital current concern to our troubled society. These include, among others, ecology, transportation, safety, reliability, urban planning, economics, inventory control, investment strategy and logistics (including reverse logistics). Computers & Operations Research provides an international forum for the application of computers and operations research techniques to problems in these and related fields.