Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Collaborative Information Seeking pp 167–191Cite as

A Probability Ranking Principle for Collaborative Search

  • Chapter

  • 965 Accesses

Part of the book series: Computer Supported Cooperative Work ((CSCW))

Abstract

In various work domains, the collaborative performance of a work task by a team can lead to a shared information need required to fulfill this task. Many empirical studies identified collaborative information seeking and retrieval as everyday work patterns in order to solve a shared information need and to benefit from the diverse expertise and experience of the team members. In everyday work practices, collaboration is realized by utilizing a broad range of software tools that build a heterogeneous collaboration environment. In such environments, collaboration is performed in a loosely coupled manner and using tools designed for individual usage. In this chapter, we present a general probabilistic framework for ranking documents in such collaborative settings that accounts for differences in skills and expertise within the team and ranks documents accordingly. Our approach is justified by decision theory. We present a proof of optimality of our ranking principle and show that it can serve as a justification for previous research approaches in the area of collaborative search.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    We recognize that this is a rather simple cost-model, but it does capture the main elements of interest and is similar to the original cost-model introduced in Robertson (1977). We shall leave the development of more complex cost models, which cater for other factors like communication costs, to future work.

References

  • Amabile TM, Patterson C, Mueller J, Wojcik T, Odomirok PW, Marsh M, Kramer SJ (2001) Academic-practitioner collaboration in management research: a case of cross-profession collaboration. Acad Manag J 44(2):418–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baeza-Yates R, Pino JA (1997) A first step to formally evaluate collaborative work. In: Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on supporting group work: the integration challenge. ACM, New York, pp 56–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates MJ (1979a) Idea tactics. J Am Soc Inf Sci 30(5):280–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates MJ (1979b) Information search tactics. J Am Soc Inf Sci 30(4):205–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Böhm T, Klas CP, Hemmje M (2013) Supporting collaborative information seeking and searching in distributed environments. In: Proceedings of LWA 2013 conference. Bamberg, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • Böhm T, Klas CP, Hemmje M (2014a) Collaborative information seeking in professional work-settings: a study of equipment utilization. Datenbank-Spektrum 14(1):29–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Böhm T, Klas CP, Hemmje M (2014b) ezDL: collaborative information seeking and retrieval in a heterogeneous environment. Computer 47(3):32–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce H, Fidel R, Pejtersen A, Dumais S, Grudin J, Poltrock S (2003) A comparison of the collaborative information retrieval behaviour of two design teams. New Rev Inf Behav Res 4(1):139–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Byström K, Hansen P (2005) Conceptual framework for tasks in information studies. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 56(10):1050–1061

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford K, Hasan H, Warne L, Linger H (2009) From traditional knowledge management in hierarchical organizations to a network centric paradigm for a changing world. Emerg Complexity and Organ 11(1): 1–18. See: http://emergentpublications.com/documents/152132501101_contents.pdf

  • Crestani F, Lalmas M, Van Rijsbergen CJ, Campbell I (1998) “Is this document relevant? …probably”: a survey of probabilistic models in information retrieval. ACM Comput Surv (CSUR) 30(4):528–552

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings JN (2004) Work groups, structural diversity, and knowledge sharing in a global organization. Manag Sci 50(3):352–364

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Davenport TH, Prusak L (1998) Working knowledge: how organizations manage what they know. Harvard Business Press, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Dourish P, Bellotti V (1992) Awareness and coordination in shared workspaces. In: Proceedings of the 1992 ACM conference on computer-supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, pp 107–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich K, Cash D (1994) Turning information into knowledge: information finding as a collaborative activity. In: Proceedings of digital libraries’ 94, Newark, pp 119–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Fidel R, Bruce H, Pejtersen A, Dumais S, Grudin J, Poltrock S (2000) Collaborative information retrieval. New Rev Inf Behav Res 1(1):235–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley C, Smeaton AF (2009) Synchronous collaborative information retrieval: techniques and evaluation. In: Advances in information retrieval. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 42–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs L, Pankoke-Babatz U, Prinz W (1995) Supporting cooperative awareness with local event mechanisms: the groupdesk system. In: Proceedings of the fourth European conference on computer-supported cooperative work ECSCW95. Springer, Netherlands, pp 247–262

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuhr N (1992) Probabilistic models in information retrieval. Comput J 35(3):243–255

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Fuhr N (2008) A probability ranking principle for interactive information retrieval. Inf Retr 11(3):251–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golovchinsky G, Pickens J, Back M (2009) A taxonomy of collaboration in online information seeking. Arxiv preprint arXiv:0908.0704

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon MD, Lenk P (1991) A utility theoretic examination of the probability ranking principle in information retrieval. JASIS 42(10):703–714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon MD, Lenk P (1992) When is the probability ranking principle suboptimal? JASIS 43(1):1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haake JM, Hussein T, Joop B, Lukosch S, Veiel D, Ziegler J (2009) Context modeling for adaptive collaboration. Universität Duisburg Essen, Technical report 2

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen P (2011) Task-based information seeking and retrieval in the patent domain. Processes and relationships. Academic Dissertation, University of Tampere

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen P, Järvelin K (2005) Collaborative information retrieval in an information-intensive domain. Inf Process Manag 41(5):1101–1119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemmje M, Stein A, Boecker HD (1996) A multidimensional categorization of information activities for differential design and evaluation of information systems. Arbeitspapiere der GMD:. GMD-Studien. Sankt Augustin: GMD – Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertzum M, Pejtersen AM (2000) The information-seeking practices of engineers: searching for documents as well as for people. Inf Process Manag 36(5):761–778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyldegård J (2006) Between individual and group-exploring group members’ information behavior in context. Ph.D. thesis, Det Informationsvidenskabelige AkademiDanish School of Library and Information Science, LedelsenLedelsen

    Google Scholar 

  • Järvelin K, Wilson T (2003) On conceptual models for information seeking and retrieval research. Inf Res 9(1):163

    Google Scholar 

  • Joho H, Hannah D, Jose JM (2008) Comparing collaborative and independent search in a recall-oriented task. In: Proceedings of the second international symposium on information interaction in context. ACM, New York, pp 89–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Joho H, Azzopardi LA, Vanderbauwhede W (2010) A survey of patent users: an analysis of tasks, behavior, search functionality and system requirements. In: Proceedings of the third symposium on information interaction in context. ACM, New York, pp 13–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Karunakaran A, Spence PR, Reddy MC (2010) Towards a model of collaborative information behavior. In: 2nd international workshop on collaborative information seeking-ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work. ACM. Savannah, Georgia, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly R, Payne SJ (2014) Collaborative web search in context: a study of tool use in everyday tasks. In: Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work & social computing. ACM, New York, pp 807–819

    Google Scholar 

  • Klas CP, Kriewel S, Hemmje M (2008) An experimental system for adaptive services in information retrieval. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on adaptive information retrieval (AIR 2008). Citeseer. London, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhlthau CC (1991) Inside the search process: information seeking from the user’s perspective. JASIS 42(5):361–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landwich P, Klas CP, Hemmje M (2009) Catching the user-logging the information retrieval dialogue. In: SIGIR 2009 workshop: understanding the user, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • McGrath JE, Arrow H, Gruenfeld DH, Hollingshead AB, O’Connor KM (1993) Groups, tasks, and technology the effects of experience and change. Small Group Res 24(3):406–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melin G, Persson O (1996) Studying research collaboration using co-authorships. Scientometrics 36(3):363–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitrelis A, Tsakonas G, Papatheodorou C (2008) Using qualitative research methods for the improvement of collaborative information searching tools design. In Proceedings of 2008 Conference Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA 08). http://eprints.rclis.org/11771

  • Morris MR (2007) Interfaces for collaborative exploratory web search: motivations and directions for multi-user design. In: Proceedings of ACM SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems 2007 workshop on exploratory search and HCI: designing and evaluating interfaces to support exploratory search interaction, San Jose, pp 9–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris MR (2008) A survey of collaborative web search practices. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, New York, pp 1657–1660

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris MR (2013) Collaborative search revisited. In: Proceedings of the 2013 conference on computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, pp 1181–1192

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris MR, Horvitz E (2007) Searchtogether: an interface for collaborative web search. In: Proceedings of the 20th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology. ACM, New York, pp 3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris MR, Lombardo J, Wigdor D (2010) Wesearch: supporting collaborative search and sensemaking on a tabletop display. In: Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work. ACM, New York, pp 401–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Nonaka I, Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • North DW (1968) A tutorial introduction to decision theory. IEEE Trans Syst Sci Cybern 4(3):200–210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Day VL, Jeffries R (1993) Information artisans: patterns of result sharing by information searchers. In: Proceedings of the conference on organizational computing systems. ACM, New York, pp 98–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Patel D, Kalter SD (1993) Low overhead, loosely coupled communication channels in collaboration. In: Proceedings of the third European conference on computer-supported cooperative work (ECSCW93), 13–17 Sept 1993, Milan. Springer, pp 203–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickens J, Golovchinsky G, Shah C, Qvarfordt P, Back M (2008) Algorithmic mediation for collaborative exploratory search. In: Proceedings of the 31st annual international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval. ACM, New York, pp 315–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Poltrock S, Grudin J, Dumais S, Fidel R, Bruce H, Pejtersen AM (2003) Information seeking and sharing in design teams. In: Proceedings of the 2003 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on supporting group work, Sanibel Island, pp 239–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Prekop P (2002) A qualitative study of collaborative information seeking. J Doc 58(5):533–547

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy MC, Jansen BJ (2008) A model for understanding collaborative information behavior in context: a study of two healthcare teams. Inf Process Manag 44(1):256–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy MC, Spence P (2008) Collaborative information seeking: a field study of a multidisciplinary patient care team. Inf Process Manag 44(1):242–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson SE (1977) The probability ranking principle in ir. J Doc 33(4):294–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rohde M, Shaffer DW (2003) Us, ourselves, and we: thoughts about social (self-) categorization. ACM SIGGROUP Bull 24(3):19–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salton G, McGill MJ (1983) Introduction to modern information retrieval. McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, ©1986 ISBN:0070544840 See http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=576628

  • Saracevic T (2007) Relevance: a review of the literature and a framework for thinking on the notion in information science. Part III: behavior and effects of relevance. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 58(13):2126–2144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah C, González-Ibáñez RI (2011) Evaluating the synergic effect of collaboration in information 855 seeking.In: Proceedings of the 34th international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval. ACM. pp 913–922

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah C, Marchionini G (2010) Awareness in collaborative information seeking. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 61(10):1970–1986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shah C, Pickens J, Golovchinsky G (2010) Role-based results redistribution for collaborative information retrieval. Inf Process Manag 46(6):773–781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smeaton AF, Lee H, Foley C, Givney SM, Gurrin C (2006) Físchlár-DiamondTouch: collaborative video searching on a table. In Proceedings of SPIE electronic imaging-multimedia content analysis, management, and retrieval (6073), SPIE Publications, San Jose, pp 8–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnenwald DH, Maglaughlin KL, Whitton MC (2004) Designing to support situation awareness across distances: an example from a scientific collaboratory. Inf Process Manag 40(6):989–1011

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Spence PR, Reddy MC, Hall R (2005) A survey of collaborative information seeking practices of academic researchers. In: Proceedings of the 2005 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on supporting group work. ACM, New York, pp 85–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Talja S (2002) Information sharing in academic communities: types and levels of collaboration in information seeking and use. New Rev Inf Behav Res 3(1):143–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Talja S, Hansen P (2006) Information sharing. In: New directions in human information behavior. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 113–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Twidale MB, Nichols DM, Paice CD (1997) Browsing is a collaborative process. Inf Process Manag 33(6):761–783

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villa R, Gildea N, Jose JM (2008) A study of awareness in multimedia search. In: Proceedings of the 8th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on digital libraries. ACM, New York, pp 221–230

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Zhu J (2009) Portfolio theory of information retrieval. In: Proceedings of the 32nd international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval. ACM, New York, pp 115–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger E (2000) Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization 7(2):225–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson TD (1999) Models in information behaviour research. J Doc 55(3):249–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuccon G, Azzopardi L (2010) Using the quantum probability ranking principle to rank interdependent documents. In: Advances in information retrieval. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, pp 357–369

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuccon G, Azzopardi L, van Rijsbergen C (2010) Has portfolio theory got any principles? In: Proceedings of the 33rd international ACM SIGIR conference on research and development in information retrieval. ACM, New York, pp 755–756

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hagen, 58084, Hagen, Germany

    Thilo Böhm & Matthias Hemmje

  2. Department of Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut for Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany

    Claus-Peter Klas

Authors
  1. Thilo Böhm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Claus-Peter Klas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Matthias Hemmje
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thilo Böhm .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stockholm University, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden

    Preben Hansen

  2. Rutgers University, School of Communication & Information, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Chirag Shah

  3. GESIS - Leibniz-Institut for Social Sciences, Department of Knowledge Technologies for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany

    Claus-Peter Klas

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Böhm, T., Klas, CP., Hemmje, M. (2015). A Probability Ranking Principle for Collaborative Search. In: Hansen, P., Shah, C., Klas, CP. (eds) Collaborative Information Seeking. Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18988-8_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18541-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18988-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation