Call for Papers Learning to Rank for Information Retrieval 2007 (LR4IR'07)
Overview The task of "learning to rank" has emerged as an active and growing area of research both in information retrieval and machine learning. The goal is to design and apply methods to automatically learn a function from training data, such that the function can sort objects (e.g., documents) according to their degrees of relevance, preference, or importance as defined in a specific application. The relevance of this task for IR is without question, because many IR problems are by nature ranking problems. Improved algorithms for learning ranking functions promise improved retrieval quality and less of a need for manual parameter adaptation. In this way, many IR technologies can be potentially enhanced by using learning to rank techniques. The main purpose of this workshop, in conjunction with SIGIR 2007, is to bring together IR researchers and ML researchers working on or interested in the technologies, and let them to share their latest research results, to express their opinions on the related issues, and to discuss future directions. Topics of Interests We solicit submissions on any aspect of learning to rank for information retrieval. Particular areas of interest include, but are not limited to: - Models, features, and algorithms of learning to rank - Evaluation methods for learning to rank - Data creation methods for learning to rank - Applications of learning to rank methods to information retrieval - Comparison between traditional approaches and learning approaches to ranking - Theoretical analyses on learning to rank - Empirical comparison between learning to rank methods Shared Benchmark Data Several shared data sets have been released from Microsoft Research Asia (http://research.microsoft.com/users/tyliu/LETOR/). The data sets, created based on OHSUMED and TREC data, contain features and relevance judgments for training and evaluation of learning to rank methods. It is encouraged to use the data sets to conduct experiments in the submissions to the workshop. Paper Submission Papers should be submitted electronically via the workshop web site. http://research.microsoft.com/users/LR4IR-2007/. Detailed information on submission will be available at the site. All submissions will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee, and all accepted papers will be published in the proceedings of the workshop. The proceedings will be printed and made available at the workshop. Important Dates Paper Submission Due: June 8 Author Notification Date: June 28 Camera Ready: July 5 Organizers: Thorsten Joachims, Cornell Univ. Hang Li, Microsoft Research Asia Tie-Yan Liu, Microsoft Research Asia ChengXiang Zhai, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign PC Members: Eugene Agichtein, Emory University Javed Aslam, Northeastern University Chris Burges, Microsoft Research Olivier Chapelle, Yahoo Research Hsin-Hsi, Chen, National University of Taiwan Bruce Croft, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Ralph Herbrich, Microsoft Research Cambridge Djoerd Hiemstra, University of Twente Thomas Hofmann, Google Rong Jin, Michigan State University Paul Kantor, Rutgers University Sathiya Keerthi, Yahoo Research Ravi Kumar, Yahoo Research Quov Le, Australian National University Guy Lebanon, Prudue University Donald Metzler, University Massachusetts Einat Minkov, Carnegie Mellon University Filip Radlinski, Cornell University Mehran Sahami, Google Robert Schapire, Princeton University Michael Taylor, Microsoft Research Cambridge Yiming Yang, Carnegie Mellon University Kai Yu, NEC Research Institute Hongyuan Zha, Georgia Tech Yi Zhang, University of California, Santa Cruz _______________________________________________ uai mailing list uai@ENGR.ORST.EDU https://secure.engr.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/uai