In interactive information retrieval, researchers consider the user behaviour towards systems and search tasks in order to adapt search results and to improve the search experience of users. Analysing the users’ past interactions with the system is one typical approach. In this paper, we analyse the user behaviour in retrieval sessions towards Marcia Bates’ search stratagems such as “Footnote Chasing”, “Citation Searching”, “Keyword Searching”, “Author Searching” and “Journal Run” in a real-life academic search engine. In fact, search stratagems represent high-level search behaviour as the users go beyond simple execution of queries and investigate more of the system functionalities. We performed analyses of these five search stratagems using two datasets extracted from the social sciences search engine sowiport. A specific focus was the detection of the search phase and frequency of the usage of these stratagems. In addition, we explored the impact of these stratagems on the whole search process performance. We addressed mainly the usage patterns’ observation of the stratagems, their impact on the conduct of retrieval sessions and explored whether they are used similarly in both datasets. From the observation and metrics proposed, we can conclude that the utilisation of search stratagems in real retrieval sessions leads to an improvement of the precision in terms of positive interactions. For both datasets (SUSS 14–15 and SUSS 16–17), the user behaviour was similar as all stratagems appear most frequently in the middle of a session. However, the difference is that “Footnote Chasing”, “Citation Searching” and “Journal Run” appear mostly at the end of a session while Keyword and Author Searching appear typically at the beginning. Thus, we can conclude from the log analysis that the improvement of search functionalities including personalisation and or recommendation could be achieved by considering references, citations, and journals in the ranking process.
In this paper, we are interested in studying five types of stratagems defined in @cite_10 @cite_13 , namely: Footnote Chasing , Citation Searching , Keyword Searching , Author Searching and Journal Run . In fact, Footnote Chasing and Citation Searching are popular stratagems that refer to the study of documents and their bibliographic references and citations. Keyword Searching refers to the terms indexed in each document description. Other users search for author or editor names in the query which is referred as Author Searching . Journal Run refers to the examination of papers present in a specific source (in this case the source is a journal).
@cite_13 @cite_10
1964729842 2066941314
First, a new model of searching in online and other information systems, called ‘berrypicking’, is discussed. This model, it is argued, is much closer to the real behavior of information searchers than the traditional model of information retrieval is, and, consequently, will guide our thinking better in the design of effective interfaces. Second, the research literature of manual information seeking behavior is drawn on for suggestions of capabilities that users might like to have in online systems. Third, based on the new model and the research on information seeking, suggestions are made for how new search capabilities could be incorporated into the design of search interfaces. Particular attention is given to the nature and types of browsing that can be facilitated. Abstract Many users of online and other automated information systems want to take advantage of the speed and power of automated retrieval, while still controlling and directing the steps of the search themselves. They do not want the system to take over and carry out the search entirely for them. Yet the objective of much of current theory and experimentation in information retrieval systems and interfaces is to design systems in which the user has either no or only reactive involvement with the search process. It is argued here that the advanced information retrieval research community is missing an opportunity to design systems that are in better harmony with the actual preferences of many users—sophisticated systems that provide an optimal combination of searcher control and system retrieval power. The user may be provided effective means of directing the search if capabilities specific to the information retrieval process, that is, strategic behaviors normally associated with information searching, are incorporated into the interface. There are many questions concerning (1) the degree of user vs. system involvement in the search, and (2) the size, or chunking, of activities; that is, how much and what type of activity the user should be able to direct the system to do at once. These two dimensions are analyzed and a number of configurations of system capability that combine user and system control are presented and discussed. In the process, the concept of the information search stratagem is introduced, and particular attention is paid to the provision of strategic, as opposed to purely procedural capabilities for the searcher. Finally, certain types of user-system relationship are selected as deserving particular attention in future information retrieval system design, and arguments are made to support the recommendations.