Dspace 7 and Relevance.

[Ibai Stats]

Hi:

I would like to ask what the parameters are that govern relevance in a search in DSpace 7, since sometimes they seem somewhat random. We understand that it is rather SOLR that returns these results.

Would it be possible to modify this relevance so that those results that contain the search in the title or summary appear first?

Thank you very much and best regards. 

[DSpace Technical Support]

Hi,

You are correct that relevance is decided by Solr, based on the information indexed in Solr. 

It is possible to modify relevance at the Solr level, because DSpace makes available all the underlying Solr configuration: https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/tree/main/dspace/solr/search/conf   So, if you want to switch the scoring/ranking/relevance settings at the Solr level, you can do so.  Those changes will result in a different relevance ordering in your DSpace search results.

At this time DSpace doesn't have any documentation on how to modify ranking at the Solr level, because we've found that the default settings provide a good relevance for DSpace's purposes.   But, I'm guessing there likely are guides out there for tweaking Solr ranking/relevancy based on your own local needs.   If you find anything of interest to others, please feel free to share it here...especially if you come across a better relevancy configuration which you feel other DSpace sites may wish to consider.

Tim