Computer magazine dingbat logoSpecial Issue on Collaborative Information Seeking

 For many years, information retrieval has focused on individual users searching for information. Algorithms have assumed that one person is reviewing the results, and user interfaces have supported the needs of individual searchers.
CIS–also referred to as collaborative information retrieval and collaborative search–focuses on the notion that information seeking is not always a solitary activity, and that people working in collaboration to perform information-seeking tasks should be studied and supported. CIS occurs in many contexts, including healthcare, business intelligence, technical fields, strategic research, information analysis, planning tasks, and everyday activities such as shopping and travel.
Submissions should be original manuscripts that describe research, experiences, and software tools/algorithms/architectures focused on support for collaborative information seeking. Specific topics include

• CIS theories and models;
• design guidelines and experiences;
• CIS applications in different domains, such as e-learning environments, healthcare, subiness, office work, and intelligence analysis;
• approaches for incorporating CIS with social search;
• issues related to collaborators' awareness of actions, time/space, and participants' roles;
• algorithmic and user mediation of the search process;
• methodologies for studying CIS;, and
• software tools and algorithms to support collaborative search.

All submissions are subject to peer review based on both technical merit and relevance to Computer's readership, which includes a large base of developers interested in information they can apply practically in their work. Accepted papers will be professionally edited for content and style.

Direct inquiries to the guest editors: Chirag Shah, Rutgers University; Rob Capra, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Preben Hansen, Stockholm University.