The last two decades have seen a growing interest in exploratory and complex searches in the information-seeking and retrieval community. Despite the plethora of proposed definitions and support interfaces for Exploratory Search, the key dimensions and characteristics of exploratory search remain unclear, leading to uncertainty. In the realm of information-seeking and retrieval, exploring academic literature for relevant references, including theses, publications, and reports, is widely recognised as an exploratory search task. This task becomes even more challenging when searchers have limited prior knowledge of the subject matter. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand the main dimensions and characteristics of exploratory search tasks, mainly focusing on literature review tasks. The original contributions of this thesis are fourfold: Firstly, it offers a conceptual model of exploratory search, consolidating an array of characteristics about the core dimensions of exploratory search—namely, the problem context, users, and search process. Secondly, through a series of empirical studies, the thesis validates this model and introduces additional dimensions and characteristics, including ‘Knowledge Gain.’ Thirdly, it investigates the impact of the support exploratory interfaces on users’ behaviours, perceptions, search outcomes, and overall experiences during exploratory searches within academic contexts. Lastly, serving as a specialised application of the exploratory search model, the thesis introduces a tailored version to cater to the requirements of literature review tasks. These insights aid in understanding the richness and multifaceted nature of exploratory searches and have the potential to shape design support user interfaces within the Information Seeking and Retrieval community.
| Date of Award | 11 Apr 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - University Of Strathclyde
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| Supervisor | Ian Ruthven (Supervisor) & Leif Azzopardi (Supervisor) |
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