Skip to main content
Log in

Explanation in Recommender Systems

  • Published:
Artificial Intelligence Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is increasing awareness in recommender systems research of the need to make the recommendation process more transparent to users. Following a brief review of existing approaches to explanation in recommender systems, we focus in this paper on a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach to product recommendation that offers important benefits in terms of the ease with which the recommendation process can be explained and the system’s recommendations can be justified. For example, recommendations based on incomplete queries can be justified on the grounds that the user’s preferences with respect to attributes not mentioned in her query cannot affect the outcome. We also show how the relevance of any question the user is asked can be explained in terms of its ability to discriminate between competing cases, thus giving users a unique insight into the recommendation process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • D.W. Aha L.A. Breslow H. Muñoz-Avila (2001) ArticleTitleConversational Case-Based Reasoning Applied Intelligence 14 9–32 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1008346807097

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • E. Armengol A. Palaudàries E. Plaza (2001) ArticleTitleIndividual Prognosis of Diabetes Long-Term Risks: a CBR Approach Methods of Information in Medicine 40 46–51 Occurrence Handle11310159

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R. Burke (2002) ArticleTitleInteractive Critiquing for Catalog Navigation in E-Commerce Artificial Intelligence Review 18 245–267 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1020701617138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • M. Doyle P. Cunningham (2000) A Dynamic Approach to Reducing Dialog in On-Line Decision Guides E. Blanzieri L. Portinale (Eds) Advances in Case-Based Reasoning Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 49–60

    Google Scholar 

  • A.S. Elstein L.A. Schulman S.A. Sprafka (1978) Medical Problem Solving: an Analysis of Clinical Reasoning Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans-Romaine, K., Marling, C. (2003). Prescribing Exercise Regimens for Cardiac and Pulmonary Disease Patients with CBR. In McGinty, L. (ed.) ICCBR-03 Workshop Proceedings, 45–52. Technical Report 4/2004, Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

  • T. Gaasterland P. Godfrey J. Minker (1992) ArticleTitleAn Overview of Cooperative Answering Journal of Intelligent Information Systems 1 123–157 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00962280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • K.J. Hammond R. Burke K. Schmitt (1996) A Case-Based Approach to Knowledge Navigation D.B. Leake (Eds) Case-Based Reasoning: Experiences, Lessons., Future Directions AAAI Press Menlo Park, CA 125–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Herlocker, J. L., Konstan, J. A., Riedl, J. (2000). Explaining Collaborative Filtering Recommendations. In Proceedings of the 2000 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 241–250. ACM Press: New York, NY

  • J.P. Kassirer R.I. Kopelman (1991) Learning Clinical Reasoning Williams and Wilkins Baltimore, MD

    Google Scholar 

  • A. Kohlmaier S. Schmitt R. Bergmann (2001) A Similarity-Based Approach to Attribute Selection in User-Adaptive Sales Dialogues D.W. Aha I. Watson (Eds) Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 306–320

    Google Scholar 

  • L. McGinty B. Smyth (2002) Comparison-Based Recommendation S. Craw A. Preece (Eds) Advances in Case-Based Reasoning Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 575–589

    Google Scholar 

  • D. McSherry (1999) ArticleTitleStrategic Induction of Decision Trees Knowledge-Based Systems 12 269–275 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0950-7051(99)00024-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D. McSherry (2001a) ArticleTitleInteractive Case-Based Reasoning in Sequential Diagnosis Applied Intelligence 14 65–76 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1008355024844

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McSherry, D. (2001b). Minimizing Dialog Length in Interactive Case-Based Reasoning. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 993–998. Morgan Kaufmann: San Francisco, CA.

  • McSherry, D. (2002a). Mixed-Initiative Dialogue in Case-Based Reasoning. In Aha, D.W. (ed.) Proceedings of the ECCBR-02 Workshop on Mixed-Initiative Case-Based Reasoning, 1–8. Robert Gordon University: Aberdeen.

  • McSherry, D. (2002b). Recommendation Engineering. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 86–90. IOS Press: Amsterdam.

  • D. McSherry (2002c) ArticleTitleThe Inseparability Problem in Interactive Case-based Reasoning Knowledge-Based Systems 15 293–300 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0950-7051(01)00164-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McSherry, D. (2003a). Increasing Dialogue Efficiency in Case-Based Reasoning Without Loss of Solution Quality. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 121–126. Morgan Kaufmann: San Francisco, CA.

  • D. McSherry (2003b) Similarity and Compromise K.D. Ashley D.G. Bridge (Eds) Case-Based Reasoning Research and Development Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 291–305

    Google Scholar 

  • D. McSherry (2004) Incremental Relaxation of Unsuccessful Queries P. Funk P. González-Calero (Eds) Advances in Case-Based Reasoning Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 331–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Reilly, J., McCarthy, K., McGinty, L., Smyth, B. (2005) Explaining Compound Critiques. Artificial Intelligence Review. This Issue

  • H. Shimazu (2002) ArticleTitleExpertClerk: A Conversational Case-Based Reasoning Tool for Developing Salesclerk Agents in E-Commerce Webshops Artificial Intelligence Review 18 223–244 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1020757023711

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • F. Sørmo A. Aamodt (2002) Knowledge Communication and CBR P. González-Calero (Eds) Proceedings of the ECCBR-02 Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning for Education and Training Robert Gordon University Aberdeen, Scotland 47–59

    Google Scholar 

  • Sørmo F., Cassens J., Aamodt A. (2005). Explanation in Case-Based Reasoning: Perspectives and Goals. Artificial Intelligence Review. This Issue

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Mcsherry.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mcsherry, D. Explanation in Recommender Systems. Artif Intell Rev 24, 179–197 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-005-4612-x

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-005-4612-x

Keywords

Navigation