An Innovative Approach to Data Management and Curation of Experimental Data Generated Through IR Test Collections

This paper describes the steps that led to the invention, design and development of the Distributed Information Retrieval Evaluation Campaign Tool (DIRECT) system for managing and accessing the data used and produced within experimental evaluation in Information Retrieval (IR). We present the context in which DIRECT was conceived, its conceptual model and its extension to make the data available on the Web as Linked Open Data (LOD) by enabling and enhancing their enrichment, discoverability and re-use. Finally, we discuss possible further evolutions of the system.