A method and apparatus for normalizing a score associated with a document is presented. Statistics relating to scores assigned to a set of training documents not relevant to a topic are determined. Scores represent a measure of relevance to the topic. After the various statistics have been collected, a score assigned to a testing document is normalized based on those statistics. The normalized score is then compared to a threshold score. Subsequently, the testing document is designated as relevant or not relevant to the topic based on the comparison.