Subject ranking management system provides a ranked search result for a given set of one or more search terms. The subject ranking management system determines, using a taxonomy, one or more parent subject items related to one or more matching subject items that match a given set of search terms. The system statistically ranks relevant subject items including the matching subject items and the parent subject items, and organizes the relevant subject items as ranked by the item ranking calculation unit. Ranked subjects can then be presented to an operator to assist with further refinement or used to automatically produce a better search without further operator invention.