The Journal of Information Retrieval is an international forum for theory, algorithms, and experiments that concern search and storage of text, images, video, and other such data. Research results published in the journal typically address the problems that arise for user-oriented tasks where the meaning as well as the explicit content of the data is of interest.

Information Retrieval features theoretical, experimental and applied papers. Theoretical papers report a significant conceptual advance in the design of algorithms or other processes for some information retrieval task. Experimental papers detail a test of one or more theoretical ideas in a laboratory or natural setting. Application papers cover successful application of some already established technique to a significant real world problem involving information retrieval.

Information retrieval overlaps with a variety of technical and behavioral fields. As a result, the journal includes papers which unify concepts across several traditional disciplinary boundaries, with specific application to problems of information retrieval.