Discusses relevance and its role in evaluating the effectiveness of information retrieval. Highlights include an information retrieval interaction model; a review of research; evaluation and measurement, including recall and precision and utility and user satisfaction; judges and judgment conditions; user criteria; decision making; and cognitive…

Arguing that relevance judgments are fundamental to the design and evaluation of all information retrieval systems, and that a consensus on the definition of the central concept of relevance has not been reached, this paper begins by critically reviewing four approaches to the problem of defining relevance: (1) the system-oriented approach…

Presents preliminary findings of a project intended to develop a user-validated measurement instrument based on users' relevance criteria. Two validation tests revealed conceptual and methodological challenges involving the semantic ambiguity of terms and verified the importance of situational context to scale development and use. (Author/AEF)

Considers the meaning of relevance and examines the role that relevance plays in information behavior. Literature on relevance is reviewed, cognitive and dynamic processing approaches to relevance are described, and 12 research questions are presented that address criteria users employ in evaluating information and suggest implications for system…