Second SIGIR Workshop on Simulations for Information Access (Sim4IA 2025)

TL;DR

The paper discusses the significance of simulations in information access research, highlighting their role in evaluation, understanding users, and fostering reproducibility, with a focus on the upcoming Sim4IA workshop and future campaigns.

Contribution

It introduces the second Sim4IA workshop, emphasizing recent methodological advances and planning for future evaluation campaigns in simulation-based IA research.

Findings

Simulations enhance IA evaluation when real users are unavailable.

Workshops foster collaboration and discussion on simulation methods.

Planning for upcoming TREC/CLEF campaigns advances the field.

Abstract

Simulations in information access (IA) have recently gained interest, as shown by various tutorials and workshops around that topic. Simulations can be key contributors to central IA research and evaluation questions, especially around interactive settings when real users are unavailable, or their participation is impossible due to ethical reasons. In addition, simulations in IA can help contribute to a better understanding of users, reduce complexity of evaluation experiments, and improve reproducibility. Building on recent developments in methods and toolkits, the second iteration of our Sim4IA workshop aims to again bring together researchers and practitioners to form an interactive and engaging forum for discussions on the future perspectives of the field. An additional aim is to plan an upcoming TREC/CLEF campaign.