IP&M Special Issue

OVERVIEW

Human-computer information retrieval (HCIR) is the study of information retrieval (IR) techniques that bring human intelligence into the search process. The fields of human–computer interaction (HCI) and IR have both developed innovative techniques to address the challenge of navigating complex information spaces, but their insights have often failed to cross disciplinary borders. Human–computer information retrieval has emerged in academic research and industry practice to bring together research in the fields of IR and HCI, in order to create new kinds of search systems that depend on continuous human control of the search process.

We are guest co-editing a dedicated special topic issue of Information Processing & Management (IP&M) that builds on the increased interest in HCIR, especially in light of the highly-successful HCIR workshops. The target audience is HCIR researchers in academia and industry, practitioners, and others. In addition to an open call for papers, we encourage participants of the 2011 HCIR workshop to submit an article describing their presented research in significantly expanded form.

The goals of the special issue are two-fold: (1) foster the design of search systems that support complex problem solving, increase user control and responsibility, facilitate intellectual development, support the full information life cycle, and are engaging and fun to use, and (2) provide an outlet for significant previously-unpublished research on HCIR. The desired outcome is a set of articles describing complete pieces of work that either: enhance our knowledge of existing search behaviors; demonstrate through sound experimentation how new interactive tools can assist searchers, or; propose and validate new evaluation metrics and methods appropriate for HCIR scenarios.

TOPICS

We solicit high-quality manuscripts that focus on research at the intersection of human-computer interaction and information retrieval. We encourage submissions based on, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Exploratory search, information foraging, and sense-making
• Learning, creativity, and information discovery
• Information visualization and visual analytics
• Interaction techniques and paradigms supporting making meaning with information
• Relevance feedback (including biometrics) and other HCIR control mechanisms
• Description and evaluation of end-to-end systems that support the full information life cycle (from creation to preservation)
• Integration and adaptation of search systems over time and to individual user needs
• Applications of HCI techniques to information retrieval needs in specific domains
• Frameworks and methodologies for evaluating interactive search systems (e.g., test collections, simulations, living laboratories, large-scale user studies)
• Metrics for interactive search evaluation (e.g., learning, engagement, enjoyment)
• Log analysis of interactive search systems

Note: All submissions will be required to include a thorough evaluation and validation of the new ideas they present, described in sufficient detail to facilitate reproducibility where possible. Submissions will also be required to emphasize the novelty in their work and clearly state the scientific advances that they make.

SUBMISSIONS

The deadline for submissions midnight Pacific time on Friday, January 6, 2012.

All contributions should be submitted through the electronic submission system of Information Processing & Management, following the journal guidelines for authors found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/infoproman.

Please upload your document to http://ees.elsevier.com/ipm and choose 'Human-Computer Information Retrieval' as the Article Type. For the "Request Editor" step, please select "No Request".

NOTE: We're currently experiencing an issue with the Elsevier submission site where articles can only be uploaded as "Video Still". Until we get this resolved, please go ahead and submit your work as a "video still" (the system should convert your paper to a PDF just like it would with a normal manuscript) and also email your submission to Ryen White (ryenw@microsoft.com) so we have a record of it in case we need to re-submit later.

GUEST EDITORS

• Ryen White, Microsoft Research
• Rob Capra, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Gene Golovchinsky, FX Palo Alto Laboratory
• Bill Kules, The Catholic University of America
• Dan Russell, Google
• Catherine Smith, Kent State University
• Daniel Tunkelang, LinkedIn

If you have any questions regarding the special issue, such as whether your research would be appropriate for this issue, please contact ryenw@microsoft.com.

PDF version of Call for Papers