Expert Search Research Articles

Visual query interfaces for semantic datasets: An evaluation study

The rapid growth of the Linked Open Data cloud, as well as the increasing ability to lift relational enterprise datasets to a semantic, ontology-based level means that vast amounts of information are now available in a representation that closely matches the conceptualizations of the potential users of this information. This makes it interesting to create ontology based, user-oriented tools for searching and exploring this data. Although initial efforts were intended for tech users with knowledge of SPARQL/RDF, there are ongoing proposals designed for lay users. One of the most promising approaches is to use visual query interfaces, but more user studies are needed to assess their effectiveness. In this paper, we compare the effect on usability of two important paradigms for ontology-based query interfaces: form-based and graph-based interfaces. In order to reduce the number of variables affecting the comparison, we performed a user study with two state-of-the-art query tools developed by ourselves, sharing a large part of the code base: the graph-based tool OptiqueVQS*, and the form-based tool PepeSearch. We evaluated these tools in a formal comparison study with 15 participants searching a Linked Open Data version of the Norwegian Company Registry. Participants had to respond to 6 non-trivial search tasks using alternately OptiqueVQS* and PepeSearch. Even without previous training, retrieval performance and user confidence were very high, thus suggesting that both interface designs are effective for searching RDF datasets. Expert searchers had a clear preference for the graph-based interface, and mainstream searchers obtained better performance and confidence with the form-based interface. While a number of participants spontaneously praised the capability of the graph interface for composing complex queries, our results evidence that graph interfaces are difficult to grasp. In contrast, form interfaces are more learnable and relieve problems with disorientation for mainstream users. We have also observed positive results introducing faceted search and dynamic term suggestion in semantic search interfaces.

Exploration of the Relative Contributions of Domain Knowledge and Search Expertise for Conducting Internet Searches

ABSTRACTThe relative contributions of expertise in search skills and domain knowledge were examined when using the Internet to find information. Four conditions were compared: expert searchers/high domain knowledge; expert searchers/low domain knowledge; novice searchers/high domain knowledge; and novice searchers/low domain knowledge. Search outcomes and verbal protocols were analyzed. The combination of search expertise and high domain knowledge yielded the most efficient searches. Higher search expertise yielded access to sites rated more accurate and credible. High domain knowledge yielded sites rated more thorough. Verbal protocols depicted searching as a complex decision process. Findings have implications for instructional support.

Visual Query Interfaces for Semantic Datasets: An Evaluation Study

The rapid growth of the Linked Open Data cloud, as well as the increasing ability to lift relational enterprise datasets to a semantic, ontology-based level means that vast amounts of information are now available in a representation that closely matches the conceptualizations of the potential users of this information. This makes it interesting to create ontology based, user-oriented tools for searching and exploring this data. Although initial efforts were intended for tech users with knowledge of SPARQL/RDF, there are ongoing proposals designed for lay users. One of the most promising approaches is to use visual query interfaces, but more user studies are needed to assess their effectiveness. In this paper, we compare the effect on usability of two important paradigms for ontology-based query interfaces: form-based and graph-based interfaces. In order to reduce the number of variables affecting the comparison, we performed a user study with two state-of-the-art query tools developed by ourselves, sharing a large part of the code base: the graph-based tool OptiqueVQS*, and the form-based tool PepeSearch. We evaluated these tools in a formal comparison study with 15 participants searching a Linked Open Data version of the Norwegian Company Registry. Participants had to respond to 6 non-trivial search tasks using alternately OptiqueVQS* and PepeSearch. Even without previous training, retrieval performance and user confidence were very high, thus suggesting that both interface designs are effective for searching RDF datasets. Expert searchers had a clear preference for the graph-based interface, and mainstream searchers obtained better performance and confidence with the form-based interface. While a number of participants spontaneously praised the capability of the graph interface for composing complex queries, our results evidence that graph interfaces are difficult to grasp. In contrast, form interfaces are more learnable and relieve problems with disorientation for mainstream users. We have also observed positive results introducing faceted search and dynamic term suggestion in semantic search interfaces.

The exploration of objective task difficulty and domain knowledge effects on users' query formulation

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we explore the effects of objective task difficulty and domain knowledge on users' query formulation behaviors. The dataset from a user experiment was used in this research, which focused on the medical domain. The objective difficulty was measured by the precision level of search topics (as queries) in the search system, and searchers' domain knowledge was assessed by a self‐reported rating on the familiarity with MeSH terms that were related to the search topics in the study. We compared expert searchers' and novice searchers' query similarity and query features between easy and difficult tasks. The results showed that there was no significant difference between domain experts and novices in query similarity, but there existed an opposite pattern of task difficulty effects on query similarity for searchers with different domain knowledge levels. Domain expert searchers had more diverse vocabulary in difficult tasks than in easy tasks, whereas novice searchers had to rely heavily on task descriptions to formulate their queries. Task difficulty had also influenced searchers' performance, especially the precision measure. Novice searchers' recall was relatively low in both easy and difficult tasks. The findings in this study help us further understand users' query formulation process, and have implication for the design of query suggestion functions in search systems.

Comparison of Investment Costs for Companies Using EU Structural Funds and Investment Incentives

The aim of this paper is to compare the various forms of public support for the company, specifically European subsidies from structural funds and investment incentives in the Czech Republic. Both of these public financial instruments are supposed to support company's investment but are these tools able to compansate costs that companies have to spend for them? In the research there are four types of investment costs defined: costs of completing application, investment costs, costs of subsidy management and sustainability costs. All of these costs are explained for each instrument with respect of application process. The presented results show that European subsidies are less expensive for the examinated company in spite of fact that application process is a heavy administrative burden. Appart from investment incetives that have easier application process, the investment costs are compansated by minority part of the investment incentives. The great item of investment incentives represents sustainability costs that might be covered by provided amount of tax relief. The investment incentives are certain risk that the invested costs may not be entirely covered by the investment incetives. At the end the paper compares costs of two companies defined as small and medium enterprises. Each company applied for one of the examinated financial instruments. The used methods for this paper are search inquiries, expert estimates, comparison and explanation. Theoretical approaches are examinated in a case study of two companies that have received EU subsidies and investment incentives in the Czech Republic. The results also rely on previous results of research project.

A Framework for Ontology Development of Information and Communication Technology Experts Using Thesaurus, Association for Computing Machinery Taxonomy and Domain Experts Approaches

A search for experts is a search for individuals with skills and knowledge in a particular field. Early studies studied profiling of experts in the expert search application by using keyword query. The use of concept-based query that we highlight is able to match experts and expertise to the searched field. Existing expert search systems perform search merely based on the experts’ publication information. There are no relations to other information that can act as support resources to relate them to related fields. The technique to search for expert based on publication information narrows the search scope. There are other aspects that are related to the experts such as education, teachings, supervisions, consultations, conferences, community services and professional affiliations. The use of ontology that is based on concept can also help to expand the search results as well as to link to other relations. The purpose of this research is to design a framework for ontology development of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) experts, to be used in the development of ICT expert directory. This framework is developed based on the critical evaluation of the literatures focusing on the following areas: experts search systems, experts profiling and ontology in the experts search system. The development of the framework involves extraction processes from web resources, for example, resume, individual websites, organization websites and research centers websites, to build a glossary of word index that characterizes experts. This glossary index becomes the basis for ontology development. In this research, the ontology development integrates the use of thesaurus, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) taxonomy and ICT domain experts. The ontology that had enriched the glossary index provides the semantics ability in the ICT expert directory. There are three components in the framework; they are extraction of data, development of ontology, and validation of ICT expert ontology by domain experts. The development of this framework can guide the development of concept-based ontology that is relevant and accurate to user’s needs.

Developments in Surge Research Priorities: A Systematic Review of the Literature Following the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, 2007–2015

In 2006, Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) published a special issue summarizing the proceedings of the AEM consensus conference on the "Science of Surge." One major goal of the conference was to establish research priorities in the field of "disasters" surge. For this review, we wished to determine the progress toward the conference's identified research priorities: 1) defining criteria and methods for allocation of scarce resources, 2) identifying effective triage protocols, 3) determining decision-makers and means to evaluate response efficacy, 4) developing communication and information sharing strategies, and 5) identifying methods for evaluating workforce needs. Specific criteria were developed in conjunction with library search experts. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases were queried for peer-reviewed articles from 2007 to 2015 addressing scientific advances related to the above five research priorities identified by AEM consensus conference. Abstracts and foreign language articles were excluded. Only articles with quantitative data on predefined outcomes were included; consensus panel recommendations on the above priorities were also included for the purposes of this review. Included study designs were randomized controlled trials, prospective, retrospective, qualitative (consensus panel), observational, cohort, case-control, or controlled before-and-after studies. Quality assessment was performed using a standardized tool for quantitative studies. Of the 2,484 unique articles identified by the search strategy, 313 articles appeared to be related to disaster surge. Following detailed text review, 50 articles with quantitative data and 11 concept papers (consensus conference recommendations) addressed at least one AEM consensus conference surge research priority. Outcomes included validation of the benchmark of 500 beds/million of population for disaster surge capacity, effectiveness of simulation- and Internet-based tools for forecasting of hospital and regional demand during disasters, effectiveness of reverse triage approaches, development of new disaster surge metrics, validation of mass critical care approaches (altered standards of care), use of telemedicine, and predictions of optimal hospital staffing levels for disaster surge events. Simulation tools appeared to provide some of the highest quality research. Disaster simulation studies have arguably revolutionized the study of disaster surge in the intervening years since the 2006 AEM Science of Surge conference, helping to validate some previously known disaster surge benchmarks and to generate new surge metrics. Use of reverse triage approaches and altered standards of care, as well as Internet-based tools such as Google Flu Trends, have also proven effective. However, there remains significant work to be done toward standardizing research methodologies and outcomes, as well as validating disaster surge metrics.

HTA Database Canadian Repository

HTA Database Canadian Repository

Measuring the Effect of Virtual Librarian Intervention on Student Online Search

In this paper we describe the results from a case study of the online search behavior of high school students, and the effect of virtual librarian intervention on the quality of the search results. Search log data of students' actions were analyzed, librarians recommended revised search terms, new searches were conducted with these terms, and the difference in results was analyzed. Results showed that the librarians' recommended queries were more focused and produced results of a higher reading level, which was used as a proxy for source quality. The work presented here is a preliminary investigation of how librarian search expertise can improve online search results, and raises questions about how to support online student search that are of interest to both librarians and information science researchers. Possible directions for future research are discussed.

Exploratory information searching in the enterprise: A study of user satisfaction and task performance

No prior research has been identified that investigates the causal factors for workplace exploratory search task performance. The impact of user, task, and environmental factors on user satisfaction and task performance was investigated through a mixed methods study with 26 experienced information professionals using enterprise search in an oil and gas enterprise. Some participants found 75% of high‐value items, others found none, with an average of 27%. No association was found between self‐reported search expertise and task performance, with a tendency for many participants to overestimate their search expertise. Successful searchers may have more accurate mental models of both search systems and the information space. Organizations may not have effective exploratory search task performance feedback loops, a lack of learning. This may be caused by management bias towards technology, not capability, a lack of systems thinking. Furthermore, organizations may not “know” they “don't know” their true level of search expertise, a lack of knowing. A metamodel is presented identifying the causal factors for workplace exploratory search task performance. Semistructured qualitative interviews with search staff from the defense, pharmaceutical, and aerospace sectors indicates the potential transferability of the finding that organizations may not know their search expertise levels.

Issues and reality of the Living Lab approach in the Health and Autonomy sector

With the French Patients’ Rights Act of 2002, the Health system has to be considered as a system delivering a service to the citizen. In this view, two complementary dimensions are source of tensions and changes, respectively: – The singularity of each situation, of each service recipient, which must be taken into account – The social and collective dimension of the service impact. Designing new technological solutions for health and autonomy impose to revise the methods used by the industry, integrating the new role of the patient within the health system. The report published in 2011 by the General Council of Economy about “Living Labs” opens new ways in this respect. This work has been followed by a Collective, recognized by the French institutions in November 2013 under the name of Forum LLSA. The resources of the Forum are limited to collaborative tools aimed to facilitate interactions, information, exchanges between members. These concern: good practices in open innovation; implementation of living labs teams and facilities; search for experts in animation or in legal issues (intellectual property, patient rights, etc.); strategic intelligence; design methods and tools, etc. The Living Lab approach is a reality today in the health sector, in Europa and in France. Living Labs in health and autonomy are supported by a growing number of health regional agencies and regional authorities. They refer to various methods and tools, this resulting from the history and the culture of the territory where they are implemented–and also from the profile of the leader. But they combine always, at different levels, techno-economical innovation and innovation within the health and social field. Both are reconciled at the territorial level. The Living Lab approach makes it possible to associate people right from the beginning of the design, and to capitalize on their experience. What is at stake now is to follow up the collective adoption of the proposed solutions and to measure the resulting impacts. By doing this, it will be possible to see Living Labs and their Forum LLSA as an instrument for public policies, in the field of health democracy and innovation.

Fine-Grained Knowledge Sharing in Collaborative Environments

In collaborative environments, members may try to acquire similar information on the web in order to gain knowledge in one domain. For example, in a company several departments may successively need to buy business intelligence software and employees from these departments may have studied online about different business intelligence tools and their features independently. It will be productive to get them connected and share learned knowledge. We investigate fine-grained knowledge sharing in collaborative environments. We propose to analyze members’ web surfing data to summarize the fine-grained knowledge acquired by them. A two-step framework is proposed for mining fine-grained knowledge: (1) web surfing data is clustered into tasks by a nonparametric generative model; (2) a novel discriminative infinite Hidden Markov Model is developed to mine fine-grained aspects in each task. Finally, the classic expert search method is applied to the mined results to find proper members for knowledge sharing. Experiments on web surfing data collected from our lab at UCSB and IBM show that the fine-grained aspect mining framework works as expected and outperforms baselines. When it is integrated with expert search, the search accuracy improves significantly, in comparison with applying the classic expert search method directly on web surfing data.

Lost in Translation: Supporting learners to search comprehensively across databases

<strong>Abstract: Introduction:</strong> Health sciences librarians play the key role of expert searcher for knowledge synthesis research projects. When students and trainees conduct systematic reviews as academic assignments, academic librarians train learners to search comprehensively for evidence in multiple sources. <strong>Description:</strong> The authors created an electronic toolkit with handouts and a video tutorial to support instruction on translating search strategies to various databases. <strong>Outcomes:</strong> The toolkit was well received by users, who provided constructive feedback and reported an increase in comfort with translating searches. Refinements based on the assessment results will improve the tools and supplemental resources will address some gaps in coverage. Most users still expressed the need to consult with a librarian for further training and review of their searches. <strong>Discussion:</strong> Trainees who need to conduct their own comprehensive searches for academic work will benefit from a variety of training tools to suit different levels of experience and learning styles. Electronic instructional resources such as handouts and videos can effectively supplement hands-on training and feedback from a health sciences librarian.

Scaffolding in information search: Effects on less experienced searchers

This study aims to investigate how expert scaffolded training could help, from novice postgraduate students’ point of view, and foster development of information search ability among postgraduate students. Using a quasiexperimental design over a year and a half, eight doctoral students (novice searchers) participated in a series of five sessions with an expert searcher who was an information professional. A novice-expert comparison examined the differences between novices and experts in information searching; and the effect of scaffolding sessions in which the expert information searcher helped novice information searchers was examined. Findings showed differences existed between the novice and the expert searchers in use of complex formulation of query statements, choice of keywords, and operators. Scaffolding sessions with the expert searcher resulted in self-reported and observable improvement in information searching among the novice searchers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the design of information retrieval systems and recommendations for library programmes to support the continued development of research students’ information literacy skills.

Modeling knowledge resource selection in expert librarian search.

Providing knowledge at the point of care offers the possibility for reducing error and improving patient outcomes. However, the vast majority of the physician's information needs are not met in a timely fashion. The research presented in this paper characterizes an expert librarian's search strategies as it pertains to the selection and use of various electronic information resources. The 10 searches conducted by the librarian to address the physician's information needs varied in terms of complexity and question type. The librarian employed a total of 10 resources and used as many as 7 in a single search. The longer term objective is to model the sequential process in sufficient detail as to be able to contribute to the development of intelligent automated search agents.

Success in online searches: Differences between evaluation and finding tasks

Several studies have identified important factors for search success in online searches, but until now it has not been determined whether the influence of these factors varies during the search process. This study analyzes (a) whether search expertise, prior topic knowledge, topic interest, or flow experience during a search of the World Wide Web (WWW) influence success in finding relevant information and (b) whether the effects of these predictors vary during the course of the search process. Two different search tasks are investigated: The evaluating task focuses on the selection of relevant websites from a large number of potentially relevant sites, whereas the finding task focuses on the difficulty of finding information in the case of a lack of potentially relevant websites. Survival analysis is applied to data from a quasi‐experiment. This analysis considers not only the question of whether information is found, but also when. Findings show that search expertise and flow explain success in the evaluation task; however, flow is only influential in the first phase of the search process. For the finding task, the predictors have no explanatory strength.

Sharpening the Search Saw: Lessons from Expert Searchers

Many students consider themselves to be proficient searchers and yet are disappointed or frustrated when faced with the task of locating relevant scholarly articles for a literature review. This bleak experience is common among higher education students, even for those in library and information science programs who have heightened appreciation for information resources and yet may settle for “good enough Googling” (Plosker, 2004, p. 34). This is in large part due to reliance on web search engines that have evolved relevance ranking into a vastly intelligent business, one in which we are both its customers and product (Vaidhyanathan, 2011). Google’s Hummingbird nest of search algorithms (Sullivan, 2013) provides quick and targeted hits, yet it can trigger blinders-on trust in first-page results. Concern for student search practices ranges from this permissive trust all the way to lost ability to recall facts and formulate questions (Abilock, 2015), lack of confidence in one’s own knowledge (Carr, 2010), and increased dependence on single search boxes that encourage stream-of-consciousness user input (Tucker, 2013); indeed, students may be high in tech savvy but lacking the critical thinking skills needed for information research tasks (Katz, 2007). Students have come to rely on web search engine intelligence—and it is inarguably colossal—to such an extent that they may fail to formulate a question before charging forward to search for its answer. “Google is known as a search engine, yet there is barely any searching involved anymore. The gap between a question crystallizing in your mind and an answer appearing at the top of your screen is shrinking all the time. As a consequence, our ability to ask questions is atrophying” (Leslie, 2015, para. 4). Highly accomplished students often lament their lack of skills for higher-level searching that calls for formulating pointed questions when struggling to develop a solid literature review. In addition, many are unaware that search results are filtered based on previous searches, location, and other factors extracted from personal search patterns by the search engine. Two students working side by side and entering the same search terms may receive quite different results on Google, yet the extent to which this ‘filter bubble’ (Pariser, 2011) is personalizing their search results is difficult to assess and to overcome. Just as important, it can be impossible to know what a search might be missing: how to know what’s not there? This portrayal of the information landscape may appear gloomy but, in fact, it could not be a more inspiring environment in which to do research, to find connections in ideas, and to benefit from and generate new ideas. A few lessons from expert searchers, focused on critical concepts and search practices, can sharpen a student’s search saw and move the proficient student-researcher, desiring more relevant and comprehensive search results, into a trajectory toward search expertise. For the lessons involved in this journey, the focus is on two areas: first, the critical concepts— called threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003)— found to be necessary for developing search expertise (Tucker et al., 2014); and, second, four strategic areas within search that can have significant and immediate impact on improving search results for research literature. The latter are grounded in the threshold concepts and positioned for application to literature reviews for graduate student studies.

A 'snapshot' of the visual search behaviours of medical sonographers.

Introduction: Visual search is a task that humans perform in everyday life. Whether it involves looking for a pen on a desk or a mass in a mammogram, the cognitive and perceptual processes that underpin these tasks are identical. Radiologists are experts in visual search of medical images and studies on their visual search behaviours have revealed some interesting findings with regard to diagnostic errors. In Australia, within the modality of ultrasound, sonographers perform the diagnostic scan, select images and present to the radiologist for reporting. Therefore the visual task and potential for errors is similar to a radiologist. Our aim was to explore and understand the detection, localisation and eye‐gaze behaviours of a group of qualified sonographers. Method: We measured clinical performance and analysed diagnostic errors by presenting fifty sonographic breast images that varied on cancer present and degree of difficulty to a group of sonographers in their clinical workplace. For a sub‐set of sonographers we obtained eye‐tracking metrics such as time‐to‐first fixation, total visit duration and cumulative dwell time heat maps. Results: The results indicate that the sonographers' clinical performance was high and the eye‐tracking metrics showed diagnostic error types similar to those found in studies on radiologist visual search. Conclusion: This study informs us about sonographer visual search patterns and highlights possible ways to improve diagnostic performance via targeted education.

Temporal information searching behaviour and strategies

Temporal aspects have been receiving a great deal of interest in Information Retrieval and related fields. Although previous studies have proposed, designed and implemented temporal-aware systems and solutions, understanding of people’s temporal information searching behaviour is still limited. This paper reports the findings of a user study that explored temporal information searching behaviour and strategies in a laboratory setting. Information needs were grouped into three temporal classes (Past, Recency, and Future) to systematically study their characteristics. The main findings of our experiment are as follows. (1) It is intuitive for people to augment topical keywords with temporal expressions such as history, recent, or future as a tactic of temporal search. (2) However, such queries produce mixed results and the success of query reformulations appears to depend on topics to a large extent. (3) Search engine interfaces should detect temporal information needs to trigger the display of temporal search options. (4) Finding a relevant Wikipedia page or similar summary page is a popular starting point of past information needs. (5) Current search engines do a good job for information needs related to recent events, but more work is needed for past and future tasks. (6) Participants found it most difficult to find future information. Searching for domain experts was a key tactic in Future search, and file types of relevant documents are different from other temporal classes. Overall, the comparison of search across temporal classes indicated that Future search was the most difficult and the least successful followed by the search for the Past and then for Recency information. This paper discusses the implications of these findings on the design of future temporal IR systems.

Keeping the human: neuroethics and the conciliation of dissonant values in the 21st century

Studied since antiquity, the human brain has recently been the inspiration for an international neuroscientific entrepreneurship, the Human Brain Project in Europe and the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies initiative in the USA. Different in their approach, both regard the human brain as one of the greatest challenges of 21st century science and the organ that makes us “human”. However, it is mainly the necessity of developing new therapies that affect up to a billion people worldwide, which has propelled the search for extensive expertise and investment in neuroscience research. The debate on ethical and social policy issues as well as the research and medical strategies of such gigantic efforts has involved participants as diverse as neuroscientists, philosophers, scholars in ethics and law, politicians, and the general public, rendering modern neuroscience an interdisciplinary and conflictual endeavor. In fact, the brain is described as the biological underpinning of our thoughts, emotions, perceptions, free willed actions, and memories, features unique to our humanity. In this review, three neuroscientists and a philosopher from the neuroethics community provide their perspectives for an up-to-date survey of salient neuroethical issues, ie, modulation of free will and neuropharmaceuticals and neurotechnologies that enhance cognitive capacities, as well as an introduction of the reader to the controversial new discipline of neuroethics. Written for nonexperts in the field, it is intended to reflect on and to impart information helpful in understanding the challenges and the perils of modern neuroscience, whose tools are so powerful as to jeopardize what is uniquely “human” through willful mind manipulation. We conclude that, for any future effort to “recreate” the mind and, at the same time, keep what is uniquely ours, it will be necessary to reflect ethically and review carefully man's past best efforts at self-understanding.