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Rethinking ‘Advanced Search’: A New Approach to Complex Query Formulation

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Advances in Information Retrieval (ECIR 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11438))

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Abstract

Knowledge workers such as patent agents, recruiters and media monitoring professionals undertake work tasks where search forms a core part of their duties. In these instances, the search task often involves the formulation of complex queries expressed as Boolean strings. However, creating effective Boolean queries remains an ongoing challenge, often compromised by errors and inefficiencies. In this demo paper, we present a new approach to query formulation in which concepts are expressed on a two-dimensional canvas and relationships are articulated using direct manipulation. This has the potential to eliminate many sources of error, makes the query semantics more transparent, and offers new opportunities for query refinement and optimisation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://booleanstrings.ning.com/forum/topics/boolean-search-strings-repository, accessed 10 Oct 2018.

  2. 2.

    https://scoperac.com/booleanstringbank, accessed 10 Oct 2018.

  3. 3.

    http://booleanblackbelt.com/2016/01/the-most-powerful-boolean-search-operator, accessed 10 Oct 2018.

  4. 4.

    https://2dsearch.com, accessed 24 Oct 2018.

  5. 5.

    https://www.kidzsearch.com/boolify/, accessed 23 Oct 2018.

  6. 6.

    https://material.io.

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Correspondence to Tony Russell-Rose .

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Russell-Rose, T., Chamberlain, J., Kruschwitz, U. (2019). Rethinking ‘Advanced Search’: A New Approach to Complex Query Formulation. In: Azzopardi, L., Stein, B., Fuhr, N., Mayr, P., Hauff, C., Hiemstra, D. (eds) Advances in Information Retrieval. ECIR 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11438. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15719-7_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15719-7_31

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