[VuFind-Tech] [SOLR | searchspecs.yaml] Help: boosting records relevance ranking that have a higher publishDate value (more recents ones)

[Filipe MS B. (UA) <fs...@ua...>]

Hello all!

Getting a ride from Nathan's last message (and from many other related to SOLR / searches tuning), I once again address the SOLR expert out there (VuFinders' ones): I have a challenge in hands that perhaps is just a trivial one for most of you.

One of the main complaints about 3rd parties databases' search is that relevance algorithms don't take into account publish date as a factor to take to the surface the most recent articles/documents. This might render quite relevant (sorry about the redundancy) in more volatile areas in which the quest for new pearls, meanwhile published, is quit huge, with some of that articles/documents voiding previous state of the art about a certain field (we have a great technological component in the wide variety of Courses offered). And in most of the cases those previous works appear as the top of the search results (as the most relevant ones), that in some cases now are just historical documents, almost obsoletes.

Sure patrons/users can always sort by "Date Descending", but there goes the relevance... have a component of "freshness" | recent published more relevant, within relevance ranking to bring those to the top when compared with similar relevant ones, but older, might carry some risks, I know, but perhaps in most of the cases, more profits (usually these most recent ones have references to relevant published works, anyway).

I have analyzed some months ago this situation (possible solutions within DismaxFields| QueryFields | CustomMunge [web/conf/ searchspecs.yaml]) but from what I recall it's not so simple as to add publishDate to DismaxFields / QueryFields in AllFields, for instance, as this would boost records weight only if one of the searched term matchs the publishDate (that is, if we were doing a seach for "nanotubes 2012" for instance), right?

So, any thoughts of ways to accomplish this, that is the higher the value the publishDate is, the higher the weight of the record in the result list / scope?

Many, many thanks (and sorry if it is trivial),

Filipe