Introduction to the Special Issue: Overview of the TREC Routing and Filtering Tasks

This paper introduces the special issue, and reviews the routing and filtering tasks as defined and evaluated at TREC. The tasks attempt to simulate a specific service situation: the system is assumed to process an incoming stream of documents against profiles of user interest, strictly in the time order in which they arrive, and immediately refer any matching document to the user. In the adaptive filtering version of the task, the user is assumed to provide a relevance judgement instantly. The rationale for the task definitions and the evaluation measures used is discussed.