The effect of granularity and order in XML element retrieval

The article presents an analysis of the effect of granularity and order in an XML encoded collection of full text journal articles. 218 sessions of searchers performing simulated work tasks in the collection have been analysed. The results show that searchers prefer to use smaller sections of the article as their source of information. In interaction sessions during which articles are assessed, however, they are to a large degree evaluated as more important than the articles’ sections and subsections

Seven years of INEX interactive retrieval experiments – lessons and challenges

This paper summarizes a major effort in interactive search investigation, the INEX i-track, a collective effort run over a seven-year period. We present the experimental conditions, report some of the findings of the participating groups, and examine the challenges posed by this kind of collective experimental effort

Using ‘search transitions’ to study searchers investment of effort: experiences with client and server side logging

We are investigating the value of using the concept ‘search transition’ for studying effort invested in information search processes. In this paper we present findings from a comparative study of data collected from client and server side loggings. The purpose is to see what factors of effort can be captured from the two logging methods. The data stems from studies of searchers interaction with an XML information retrieval system. The searchers interaction was simultaneously logged by a screen capturing software and the IR systems logging facility. In order to identify the advantages and disadvantages we have compared the data gathered from a selection of sessions. We believe there is value in identifying the effort investment in a search process, both to evaluate the quality of the search system and to suggest areas of system intervention in the search process, if effort investment can be detected dynamicall

'Irrational' searchers and IR-rational researchers

In this article we look at the prescriptions advocated by Web search textbooks in the light of a selection of empirical data of real Web information search processes. We use the strategy of disjointed incrementalism, which is a theoretical foundation from decision making, to focus on how people face complex problems, and claim that such problem solving can be compared to the tasks searchers perform when interacting with the Web. The findings suggest that textbooks on web searching should take into account that searchers only tend to take a certain number of sources into consideration, that the searchers adjust their goals and objectives during searching, and that searchers reconsider the usefulness of sources at different stages of their work tasks as well as their search tasks

The effect of task type on preferred element types in an XML‐based retrieval system

This article examines the influence of task type on the users' preferred level of document elements (full articles, sections, or subsections) during interaction with an XML-version of Wikipedia. We found that in general articles and subsections seemed to be the most valuable elements for our test subjects. For information-gathering tasks, this tendency was stronger, whereas for fact-finding tasks, the sections seemed to play a more important role. We assume from this that users select different information search strategies for the two task types. When dealing with fact-finding tasks, users seem more likely to use one single element as an answer, while when they do information gathering, they pick information from several elements

Manual of VIKAASA: An application capable of computing and graphing viability kernels for simple viability problems

This manual introduces and provides usage details for an application we have developed called VIKAASA, as well as the library of functions underlying it. VIKAASA runs in GNU Octave or MATLAB®, using the numerical computing and graphing capabilities of those packages to approximate, visualise and test viability kernels for viability problems involving a differential inclusion of two or more dynamic variables, a rectangular constraint set and a single scalar control

Examining the effect of task stage and topic knowledge on searcher interaction with a “digital bookstore”

This paper reports some results from the experiment of the 2010 INEX interactive track. The experiment was designed to let searchers simulate being at two distinct stages of a work task process. Data were also collected on the test participants' topic knowledge. We have performed statistical analysis of the collected data to study differences with respect to relevance judgments and use of different types of metadata, at the different stages and for users with high and low topic knowledge

Norway and the early cold war: Conditional atlantic cooperation

In the period from the independence from Sweden in 1905 and until the Second World War, Norway wanted to be a neutral country. After the war it joined NATO, together with Denmark and Iceland. Why did Norway do this, and why with important reservations? Knut Einar Eriksen and Helge Pharo discuss the reasons behind this decision