This document surveys the field of XML retrieval, highlighting its significance as a content-based retrieval method for structured data on the internet. It discusses various approaches, models, challenges, and indexing strategies for efficient XML data retrieval, such as the INEX and COMRank systems, while also addressing the importance of user queries and the structure of XML documents. Additionally, it reviews the evaluation criteria for XML retrieval systems and the tree matching algorithms used to enhance search results.