A bibliometric analysis of topic modelling studies (2000-2017)

Topic modelling is a powerful text mining tool that has been applied in many fields such as software engineering, political and linguistic sciences. To evaluate the development of topic modelling studies, the present study reports a bibliometric analysis of SCIE, SSCI and A&HCI listed articles published from 2000 and 2017. Bibliometric indices for productive authors, countries and institutions are analysed. In addition, thematic changes concerning topic modelling are also examined. Results show that China plays a leading role in this field. Topic modelling has established itself as an important technique in not only natural and formal sciences but also social sciences. LDA, social networks and text analysis are the topics with increasing popularity, while certain models (e.g. pLSA) and applications (e.g. topic detection) are declining in popularity. The findings could help researchers optimise research topic choices, seek collaboration with appropriate partners and stay up-to-date with the development of the field.

Automated summary

Topic modelling is a powerful text mining tool that has been widely applied in fields such as software engineering, political sciences, and linguistics. China plays a leading role in this field, with topics like LDA, social networks, and text analysis gaining popularity while certain models and applications are declining in popularity.