Report on the Dagstuhl Seminar on Frontiers of Information Access Experimentation for Research and Education

Abstract

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 23031 "Frontiers of Information Access Experimentation for Research and Education", which brought together 38 participants from 12 countries. The seminar addressed technology-enhanced information access (information retrieval, recommender systems, natural language processing) and specifically focused on developing more responsible experimental practices leading to more valid results, both for research as well as for scientific education.The seminar featured a series of long and short talks delivered by participants, who helped in setting a common ground and in letting emerge topics of interest to be explored as the main output of the seminar. This led to the definition of five groups which investigated challenges, opportunities, and next steps in the following areas: reality check, i.e. conducting real-world studies, human-machine-collaborative relevance judgment frameworks, overcoming methodological challenges in information retrieval and recommender systems through awareness and education, results-blind reviewing, and guidance for authors.Date: 15--20 January 2023.Website: https://www.dagstuhl.de/23031.