Issues of context in information retrieval (IR): an introduction to the special issue

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 conclude with future areas of research which arc needed in order to fully understand the multidimensional nature of context in IR. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.