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Designing and Evaluating Explanations for Recommender Systems

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Recommender Systems Handbook

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the area of explanations in recommender systems. We approach the literature from the angle of evaluation: that is, we are interested in what makes an explanation “good”, and suggest guidelines as how to best evaluate this. We identify seven benefits that explanations may contribute to a recommender system, and relate them to criteria used in evaluations of explanations in existing systems, and how these relate to evaluations with live recommender systems. We also discuss how explanations can be affected by how recommendations are presented, and the role the interaction with the recommender system plays w.r.t. explanations. Finally, we describe a number of explanation styles, and how they may be related to the underlying algorithms. Examples of explanations in existing systems are mentioned throughout.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K

    Nava Tintarev & Judith Masthoff

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  1. Nava Tintarev
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  2. Judith Masthoff
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Correspondence to Nava Tintarev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Domenicani 3, Bolzano, 39100, Italy

    Francesco Ricci

  2. , Dept. Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel

    Lior Rokach

  3. Dept. Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Bracha Shapira

  4. School of Communication,, Information & Library Studies, Rutgers University, Huntington Street 4, New Brunswick, 08901-1071, New Jersey, USA

    Paul B. Kantor

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Tintarev, N., Masthoff, J. (2011). Designing and Evaluating Explanations for Recommender Systems. In: Ricci, F., Rokach, L., Shapira, B., Kantor, P. (eds) Recommender Systems Handbook. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85820-3_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85820-3_15

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