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Topic · Information Systems

Information Retrieval and Search Behavior

Information Retrieval and Search Behavior is a research topic within Information Systems. Science Explorer counts 9.5k research works in it since 1952. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on information retrieval techniques, search engine optimization, user behavior analysis, learning to rank algorithms, query analysis, relevance feedback, clickthrough data interpretation, language models for information retrieval, and evaluation methods for web search. The papers cover a wide range of topics related to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of information retrieval systems.

  • Information Retrieval
  • Search Engines
  • User Behavior
  • Learning to Rank
  • Query Analysis
  • Relevance Feedback
  • Clickthrough Data
  • Language Models
  • Web Search
  • Evaluation Methods
Research works
9.5k
fractional, since 1952
In the world top 10%
939
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+2%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Information Retrieval and Search Behavior

Which countries lead Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (299 and 278 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 299 works
  2. 2 China 278 works
  3. 3 India 164 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 72 works
  5. 5 Germany 65 works
  6. 6 Canada 51 works
  7. 7 Netherlands 43 works
  8. 8 Australia 38 works
  9. 9 Nigeria 36 works
  10. 10 Japan 33 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 27.7%China: 25.7%India: 15.2%United Kingdom: 6.7%6 others listed: 24.6%28%largest
United States299 · 27.7%China278 · 25.7%India164 · 15.2%United Kingdom72 · 6.7%6 others listed266 · 24.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research?

By volume in 2022-now, Renmin University of China publishes the most Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research, followed by University of Glasgow and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Renmin University of ChinaChina 16 works
  2. 2 University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom 14 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 14 works
  4. 4 University of AmsterdamNetherlands 13 works
  5. 5 Universidad Autónoma del Estado de MéxicoMexico 11 works
  6. 6 Microsoft (United States)United States 11 works
  7. 7 Jadavpur UniversityIndia 11 works
  8. 8 University of WaterlooCanada 9 works
  9. 9 Amazon (United States)United States 9 works
  10. 10 University of StrathclydeUnited Kingdom 9 works

Who are the leading researchers in Information Retrieval and Search Behavior?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Information Retrieval and Search Behavior include Yoshua Bengio, Julie Glanville and Christopher D. Manning.

  1. 1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
  2. 2 Julie Glanville United Kingdom 179k citations
  3. 3 Christopher D. Manning United States 179k citations
  4. 4 Philip S. Yu United States 141k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Information Retrieval and Search Behavior?

The most cited paper in Information Retrieval and Search Behavior is "The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine" (Sergey Brin, Lawrence M. Page, 1998), with 16,170 citations. Next come "Cumulated gain-based evaluation of IR techniques" (4,810) and "A theory of memory retrieval." (4,280).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine Sergey Brin, Lawrence M. Page · Computer Networks and ISDN Systems Apr 1998 16,170
2 Cumulated gain-based evaluation of IR techniques Kalervo Järvelin, Jaana Kekäläinen · ACM Transactions on Information Systems Oct 2002 4,810
3 A theory of memory retrieval. Roger Ratcliff · Psychological Review Mar 1978 4,280
4 Probabilistic latent semantic indexing Thomas Frank Hofmann Conference paperOpen access Aug 1999 3,977
5 Optimizing search engines using clickthrough data Thorsten Joachims Conference paper 23 Jul 2002 3,934
All 95 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research done?

The largest centres of Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Glasgow (United Kingdom), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Glasgow and Amsterdam.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 84 works
  2. 2 GlasgowUnited Kingdom 23 works
  3. 3 AmsterdamNetherlands 20 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 20 works
  5. 5 MelbourneAustralia 17 works
  6. 6 SeoulSouth Korea 16 works
  7. 7 BengaluruIndia 16 works
  8. 8 KolkataIndia 16 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 15 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 14 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GlasgowGB · 23.1 works14×
  2. AmsterdamNL · 20.1 works7.8×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Information Retrieval and Search Behavior than the world average.

See Information Retrieval and Search Behavior on the map

Where is the best place to study Information Retrieval and Search Behavior?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Glasgow, Renmin University of China and University of Amsterdam score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 11.8625%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of GlasgowUniversity of Strath…University of Amster…Renmin University of…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of GlasgowUnited Kingdom 91.923.7%16.5×14 +172.5%
2Renmin University of ChinaChina 85.914.1%37.7×16 +126.1%
3University of AmsterdamNetherlands 78.115.7%15.8×13 +25.7%
4University of StrathclydeUnited Kingdom 61.415.8%24.5×9 +28.7%
5University of WaterlooCanada 60.616.4%12.7×9 -3.8%
6Universidad Autónoma del Estado de MéxicoMexico 33.43.4%55.7×11 -
7Jadavpur UniversityIndia 33.41.3%29.0×11 +474.4%
8University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States 26.24.5%6.9×8 -11.6%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Information Retrieval and Search Behavior, country by country

Is Information Retrieval and Search Behavior research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026. The fastest-growing topics are Information Retrieval and Search Behavior.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Information Retrieval and Search Behavior as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0029% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Information Retrieval and Search Behavior0.0075% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Information Retrieval and Search Behavior over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Information Retrieval and Search Behavior9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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