A plain-language glossary for TAR, sampling, and defensibility.

The uncertainty introduced when a conclusion is based on a sample instead of the full population.

Why it matters: It is the reason confidence intervals exist.

The proportion of a population that is responsive, often used interchangeably with richness.

Why it matters: It drives every sample-size and recall-uncertainty calculation.

The number or proportion of responsive documents recovered by a step in the workflow.

Why it matters: It helps you judge whether a culling or prioritization move actually captured the responsive material.

The harmonic mean of precision and recall, expressed as a single number between 0 and 1.

Why it matters: It is a convenient summary when you need to balance completeness against purity.

The proportion of documents in the discarded set that are actually responsive, estimated from a sample.

Why it matters: It quantifies what a culling decision left behind and is central to defensibility.

How far down a ranked list you must review to reach a target recall level.

Why it matters: It connects a recall goal to the actual review volume and cost it implies.