Modeling uncertainty in bibliometrics and information retrieval: an information fusion approach

We describe ongoing research where the aim is to apply recent results from the research field of information fusion to bibliometric analysis and information retrieval. We highlight the importance of ‘uncertainty’ within information fusion and argue that this concept is crucial also for bibliometrics and information retrieval. More specifically, we elaborate on three research strategies related to uncertainty: uncertainty management methods, explanation of uncertainty and visualization of uncertainty. We exemplify our strategies to the classical problem of author name disambiguation where we show how uncertainty can be modeled explained and visualized using information fusion. We show how an information seeker can benefit from tracing increases/decreases of uncertainty in the reasoning process. We also present how such changes can be explained for the information seeker through visualization techniques, which are employed to highlight the complexity involved in the process of modeling and managing uncertainty in bibliometric analysis. Finally we argue that a further integration of information fusion approaches in the research area of bibliometrics and information retrieval may results in new and fruitful venues of research.