Serendipitous recommendation for scholarly papers considering relations among researchers

Abstract

Serendipity occurs when one finds an interesting discovery while searching for something else. While search engines seek to report work relevant to a targeted query, recommendation engines are particularly well-suited for serendipitous recommendations as such processes do not need to fulfill a targeted query. Junior researchers can use such an engine to broaden their horizon and learn new areas, while senior researchers can discover interdisciplinary frontiers to apply integrative research. We adapt a state-of-the-art scholarly paper recommendation system's user profile construction to make use of information drawn from 1) dissimilar users and 2) co-authors to specifically target serendipitous recommendation. © 2011 ACM.