HARD, High Accuracy Retrieval from Documents
Overview (TREC 2005)

The goal of HARD is to achieve high accuracy retrieval from documents by leveraging additional information about the searcher and/or the search context captured using very targeted interaction with the searcher.  HARD is being run as an evaluation track within TREC, the Text REtrieval Conference sponsored by NIST.

Here are the guidelines for the TREC 2005 HARD track.

Likely schedule of events:

• May 31, track guidelines established (happened June 2)
  
• June 15, test topics available
  
• July 7, baseline runs from systems due
• July 7, clarification forms must be submitted to NIST 
• July 25, clarification form responses sent to systems from NIST
• August 8, final runs due
• Sometime, sites receive results from NIST
  
• November 15-18, TREC conference at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland (for TREC participants only)

Useful links and information:

• To send a message to HARD, email hard@ciir.cs.umass.edu.  The list is closed: you have to be subscribed to send a message to it.
  
• Subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your options for the mailing list.
  
• TREC Web page

• Information from the past:
  
• You can look at the guidelines from 2004 (currently broken) or the guidelines from 2003.  This information will give a sense of how things have run in the past.  It is not an accurate description of what will happen in 2005.
• LDC's HARD page (includes 2004 timeline)