Final Mira Conference on
Evaluating Information Retrieval
Glasgow - 14-16 April 1999
Deadline for Papers - 10 January 1999
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/mira/workshops/conference/

Mira is a European Union funded working group looking at how information
retrieval should accommodate interactivity and multimedia, and what the
implications of these are for the evaluation of IR systems. This
announcement forms (1) a call for papers to be published on the themes of
the Mira working group and (2) an open call for attendance at the final
conference of the Mira working group.

PAPERS: Papers describing work in progress or completed work are invited on
any topic affecting the area of IR evaluation. Possible topics include, but
are not limited to: * The user in the evaluation process * The changing
nature of IR tasks * Traditional evaluation methodologies * Field studies
of (multimedia) IR in work domains * The relationship between Evaluation
and IR design * A balanced approach to evaluation (software vs. user) * How
interaction affects evaluation * The move from static to dynamic evaluation
* The effects of new media on IR.

Authors are invited to submit camera-ready copies of their paper, in
English, to be received no later than 10 January 1999. Papers should
contain at most 7500 words and should be formatted in accordance with
Springer-Verlag's Electronic Workshop guidelines. The submission should
include two copies of the paper: one anonymous copy for refereeing and one
full copy for publication in the draft proceedings.

Papers will be refereed and, if accepted, will be published in the
Electronic Workshops in Computing series, provided that the overall quality
of papers is high enough. Accepted papers will also be included in the form
submitted in a draft proceedings which will be distributed to all Mira
Conference attendees. Authors will then have until 16 May 1999 to revise
their paper in light of referees' comments and feedback from the workshop
itself. The final version of papers will then be included in an e-WIC
publication.

Authors should note that acceptance for publication in the proceedings does
not guarantee presentation time at the conference. The Programme Committee
will select a sub-set of papers for presentation to achieve a balance of
topics discussed. However, all accepted papers will appear in both the
draft and final proceedings (subject to referee comments).

Please note:  papers should not be submitted to the electronic Workshops in
Computing editors directly! Initial submission is as camera ready - not
electronic.
Paper submissions should be sent to:
Mira Conference Organisation
Computing Science Department
University of Glasgow
17 Lilybank Gardens
Glasgow G12 8RZ
Scotland

Enquiries to:
mailto:mira99@dcs.gla.ac.uk
Phone: +44 141 330 4264
Fax: +44 141 330 3661

CONFERENCE: The conference will be designed to explore and exchange the
best current
thinking and opinion on the conference theme. With this in mind the
preliminary programme plans an approximately equal mix of participatory
demonstrations and exercises, discussion panels or debates on key
questions, and selected invited papers.

Demonstrations or exercises are currently planned on the following topics:
* Photographic retrieval for journalists * How much consensus is found for
relevance judgements? * Exploring the possibility of a multimedia test
collection * Applying a multi-level evaluation framework to IR.

Panels are currently planned on the following topics: * The worth of the
TREC programme * What kind of relevance should we measure? * Interactive
system performance depends on work context,so standard test-beds are of no
use * Many levels of evaluation are essential.

Programme Chair: Prof Keith van Rijsbergen
Programme Committee: Dr Stephen Draper, Dr Mark Dunlop
Local Organiser: Fiona Nixon

This conference is organised and underwriten by the Mira working group on
evaluation in information retrieval. Unlike previous meetings of Mira this
conference is open to attendees without invitation, but a small
registration fee will be charged. The conference will be held in Glasgow
City Centre with a range of accommodation being available throughout the
City - more details to follow.

Enquiries to:
mailto:mira99@dcs.gla.ac.uk
Phone: +44 141 330 4970
Fax: +44 141 330 3661