TY - GEN
T1 - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
T2 - 44th European Conference on Information Retrieval, ECIR 2022
AU - Allen, Garrett
AU - Milton, Ashlee
AU - Wright, Katherine Landau
AU - Fails, Jerry Alan A.
AU - Kennington, Casey
AU - Pera, Maria Soledad
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Readability is a core component of information retrieval (IR) tools as the complexity of a resource directly affects its relevance: a resource is only of use if the user can comprehend it. Even so, the link between readability and IR is often overlooked. As a step towards advancing knowledge on the influence of readability on IR, we focus on Web search for children. We explore how traditional formulas–which are simple, efficient, and portable–fare when applied to estimating the readability of Web resources for children written in English. We then present a formula well-suited for readability estimation of child-friendly Web resources. Lastly, we empirically show that readability can sway children’s information access. Outcomes from this work reveal that: (i) for Web resources targeting children, a simple formula suffices as long as it considers contemporary terminology and audience requirements, and (ii) instead of turning to Flesch-Kincaid–a popular formula–the use of the “right” formula can shape Web search tools to best serve children. The work we present herein builds on three pillars: Audience, Application, and Expertise. It serves as a blueprint to place readability estimation methods that best apply to and inform IR applications serving varied audiences.
AB - Readability is a core component of information retrieval (IR) tools as the complexity of a resource directly affects its relevance: a resource is only of use if the user can comprehend it. Even so, the link between readability and IR is often overlooked. As a step towards advancing knowledge on the influence of readability on IR, we focus on Web search for children. We explore how traditional formulas–which are simple, efficient, and portable–fare when applied to estimating the readability of Web resources for children written in English. We then present a formula well-suited for readability estimation of child-friendly Web resources. Lastly, we empirically show that readability can sway children’s information access. Outcomes from this work reveal that: (i) for Web resources targeting children, a simple formula suffices as long as it considers contemporary terminology and audience requirements, and (ii) instead of turning to Flesch-Kincaid–a popular formula–the use of the “right” formula can shape Web search tools to best serve children. The work we present herein builds on three pillars: Audience, Application, and Expertise. It serves as a blueprint to place readability estimation methods that best apply to and inform IR applications serving varied audiences.
KW - information retrieval
KW - readability
KW - relevance
KW - web search
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128701437&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85128701437
SN - 9783030997359
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 3
EP - 18
BT - Advances in Information Retrieval - 44th European Conference on IR Research, ECIR 2022, Proceedings
A2 - Hagen, Matthias
A2 - Verberne, Suzan
A2 - Macdonald, Craig
A2 - Seifert, Christin
A2 - Balog, Krisztian
A2 - Nørvåg, Kjetil
A2 - Setty, Vinay
PB - Springer
Y2 - 10 April 2022 through 14 April 2022
ER -