Review article

Relevance and how it was studied

Tefko Saracevic

Abstract

Relevance is a, if not even the, key notion in information science in general and information retrieval in particular. This critical review traces and synthesizes the scholarship on relevance over the past 30 years with the concentration on experimental and observational
studies that report data. For context, a historical note summarizes relevance concerns in information science, followed by discussion of the meaning of relevance intuitively and in information science. In the major section, the experiments related to relevance behavior are synthesized. The section concludes with summaries that in effect provide an interpretation and synthesis of contemporary thinking on the topic treated or suggests hypotheses for future research. Analyses of some of the major trends that shape relevance work are offered in the epilogue.

Keywords

relevance; information science; information retrieval; relevance behavior; major trends in relevance research

Hrčak ID:

16937

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/16937

Publication date:

19.7.2007.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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