IR Research

Abstract

The field of Information Retrieval (IR) is under steady development and change. Information collections have become larger and more diversified; elaborated IT platforms penetrate most life situations; computers have become more powerful; networks and devices more widespread; social media and information interaction in many forms are increasingly used in daily life, etc. Simultaneously, the information experiences of users and use of information has become increasingly differentiated. IR is well-integrated into all kinds of mobile, transactional and traditional information systems dealing with most kinds of media.Since 2002 several workshops have been held to discuss the future lines of action in IR research and development - the so-called SWIRL workshops. For an update of results see SIGIR Forum vol. 46 (1), 2012, p. 2-32. During the last SWIRL the following issues were discussed: Not just ranked lists; Help for users; Capturing context; Information - not documents; Domains (novel non-textual IT-driven areas of IR research); Evaluation.Since ICTIR 2013 fundamentally concerns IR theory the objectives of the ICTIR 2013 panel are to pinpoint central theoretical short and long-term pathways, challenges, opportunities and consequences for IR research. The following themes are suggested but not limited to be approached during the panel from predominantly theoretical perspectives:1. How far can we push ranking models, such as language models, quantum, or learning to rank - and to what end?2. Information interaction, user experiences, context and relevance - where do we stand - what is amiss?3. Personalization issues - should user models be socially constructed or real-time dependent?4. Social media in integration - useful to IR?5. Non-textual media - which models are scientifically sound?6. Small and medium-sized integrated collections - enterprise IR: where do we stand?7. Evaluation and metrics - theory-driven or ad-hoc?Some of the themes can be combined in response to the questions, for instance, evaluation methodologies for integrated information systems, and sub-themes can be evoked, e.g. tasks, authority or importance vs. relevance and relevance feedback for information interaction. Remember that IR theory is not just a mathematical-logical enterprise but includes conceptual models, frameworks and perspectives as well.