Guest editorial
Issues of context in information retrieval (IR): an introduction
to the special issue
Abstract
The subject of context has received a great deal of attention in the information retrieval (IR) literature
over the past decade, primarily in studies of information seeking and IR interactions.Recently, attention to
context in IR has expanded to address new problems in new environments.In this paper we outline five
overlapping dimensions of context which we believe to be important constituent elements and we discuss
how they are related to different issues in IR research.The papers in this special issue are summarized with
respect to how they represent work that is being conducted within these dimensions of context.We con-
clude with future areas of research which are needed in order to fully understand the multidimensional
nature of context in IR.
2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.
Keywords: Context in information retrieval; Interactive information retrieval
1. Introduction to the topic
Investigations of different aspects of context have been central concerns in studies and theories
of human information behavior, information seeking processes and information retrieval (IR)
interactions for some time now, as theorists and researchers have moved away from decontex-
tualized views of IR toward more use-centered and cognitive viewpoints.At this point, it is
generally recognized that IR is an inherently interactive process, which occurs within multiple,
overlapping, contexts that inform, direct or shape the nature of this interaction.In other words,
information seeking, use and evaluation take place within multidimensional contexts, which can
be analyzed from multiple levels.One can see these developments in the theoretical models of
Saracevic (1997), Belkin (1996), Ingwersen (1996) and others.All of these models of IR make
‘‘context’’, sometimes interchangeably used with the concept of ‘‘situation’’, a central variable or
level of analysis in the IR process.
The contexts within which a person seeks information consist of cognitive, social and other
factors related to a person’s tasks, goals and intentions, which precipitate the information seeking
episode(s).At another level of analysis, understanding context within the IR interaction itself is
important.It is within the dialogue between user and system that elicitation of user context
models is revealed, and queries disambiguated.This dimension of context can relate to user
Information Processing and Management 38 (2002) 605–611
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2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.
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models of their tasks and goals, the relevance judgment behaviors related to them, or, at a more
micro-level, the linguistic analysis of properties of queries themselves.
Despite this growing attention to issues of ‘‘context’’ in IR, there exists no single definition of
what the concept entails, or what the meaningful constituent elements of context are which have
important relationships to IR processes.In recent writing, Dervin (1997) labeled context as an
‘‘unruly beast’’ because of the difficulties involved in gaining methodological control over it.
Vakkari (1997, p.460) addressing the first International Conference on Information Seeking in
Context (ISIC) noted that quite often central concepts such as ‘‘situation’’ and ‘‘context’’ were
‘‘most commonly used without taking much trouble in seeking their meaning.’’ Conceptual clarity
between the concepts of ‘‘situation’’ and ‘‘context’’ are often especially murky (Cool, 2001).
Sonnenwald (1999) has taken a stab at disambiguating these twin concepts by characterizing
contexts as embedded within situations.Allen (1997) further distinguishes between situations and
contexts by describing contexts as the larger, ‘‘socially defined’’, settings such as work and task
environments, within which different situations take place.Despite the ill-defined nature of
‘‘context’’ ongoing research has attempted to further specify its meaningful dimensions and their
dynamics in the IR process.
The goal of this special issue is to present theoretical and empirical work which addresses some
aspect, or level, of context understanding in IR.In order to better frame this work, we can first
identify what seem to us to be the salient levels of context for understanding issues in IR.Here we
describe four overlapping and related levels of context that are relevant to IR.For each of these
levels we give a brief description, with examples of work that has been done in this area.It is
beyond the scope of this introduction to completely review all of the literature that might be
relevant to these levels.
1.1. Information environment level
Context can be construed as the information environment within which information behaviors
take place.Some concrete examples might be institutional, organizational or work task settings.
The well-known work of Taylor (1991) on ‘‘information use environments’’ represents an early
statement about this level of context.Research within this contextual level explores the social and
environmental factors that influence human information behaviors, including information seeking
and IR interactions At this level of analysis, information environments have also been looked at
in terms of channels of information and communication (Sonnenwald & Pierce, 2000; Spink &
Cole, 2001).
1.2. Information seeking level
The issue of context in IR has been investigated most thoroughly at this level of analysis.The
information seeking context level includes the goal(s) that a person is trying to achieve, or some
problem resolution task that influences the IR interaction level.Early models which have ap-
proached IR from this cognitive level of context have focused on the nature of tasks, goals and
intentions as they relate to a person’s problematic situation (Schutz & Luckmann, 1973), or
anomalous state of knowledge (Belkin, 1980).This level is more directly related to IR.Here we can
address concerns such as where in the search process a person is with respect to the problem at
606 Guest editorial / Information Processing and Management 38 (2002) 605–611