  The TREC Fair Ranking Track aims to provide a platform for participants to
develop and evaluate novel retrieval algorithms that can provide a fair
exposure to a mixture of demographics or attributes, such as ethnicity, that
are represented by relevant documents in response to a search query. For
example, particular demographics or attributes can be represented by the
documents' topical content or authors. The 2021 Fair Ranking Track adopted a
resource allocation task. The task focused on supporting Wikipedia editors who
are looking to improve the encyclopedia's coverage of topics under the purview
of a WikiProject. WikiProject coordinators and/or Wikipedia editors search for
Wikipedia documents that are in need of editing to improve the quality of the
article. The 2021 Fair Ranking track aimed to ensure that documents that are
about, or somehow represent, certain protected characteristics receive a fair
exposure to the Wikipedia editors, so that the documents have an fair
opportunity of being improved and, therefore, be well-represented in Wikipedia.
The under-representation of particular protected characteristics in Wikipedia
can result in systematic biases that can have a negative human, social, and
economic impact, particularly for disadvantaged or protected societal groups.
