Practical Implications of Handling Multiple Contexts in the Principle of Polyrepresentation.

The principle of polyrepresentation, proposed more than 10 years ago, offers a holistic theoretical framework for handling multiple contexts in Information Retrieval (IR), and allows integration of representation and matching of both documents as well as the information seeker's information need in context. Relatively few empirically based studies have, however, applied the principle explicitly for IR purposes. This paper examines the principle of polyrepresentation, and analyses the practical implications of applying it to multiple contexts in best match IR research. It is concluded that the principle is inherently Boolean in its foundation in spite of its intentions to be applicable to both exact and best match IR. This may constitute a major obstacle for the application of the principle in main stream IR and information seeking research. A polyrepresentation continuum is proposed as an illustration of this problem, and as a model for developing the principle towards greater practical applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]