Semantic Search in E-Discovery: An Interdisciplinary Approach

We propose an interdisciplinary approach to applying and evaluating semantic search in the e-discovery setting. By combining expertise from the fields of law and criminology with that of information retrieval and extraction, we move beyond “algorithm-centric” evaluation, towards evaluating the impact of semantic search in real search settings. We will approach this by collaboration in an interdisciplinary group of four PhD candidates, applying an iterative two-phase work cycle to four subprojects that run in parallel. The first phase we work individually. We determine the use and needs of search in e-discovery (subproject 1), and simultaneously explore and develop state-of-the-art semantic search approaches (subprojects 2–4). In the second phase we collaborate, designing user experiments to evaluate how and where semantic search can support the analysts’ search process. By repeating this cycle multiple times we gain specific and in-depth knowledge and propose solutions to specific challenges in search in e-discovery.