The Research Trends of Text Classification Studies (2000–2020): A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Text Classification (TC) is the process of assigning several different categories to a set of texts. This study aims to evaluate the state of the arts of TC studies. Firstly, TC-related publications indexed in Web of Science were selected as data. In total, 3,121 TC-related publications were published in 760 journals between 2000 and 2020. Then, the bibliographic information was mined to identify the publication trends, important contributors, publication venues, and involved disciplines. Besides, a thematic analysis was performed to extract topics with increasing/decreasing popularity. The findings showed that TC has become a fast-growing interdisciplinary area, and that emerging research powers such as China are playing increasingly important roles in TC research. Moreover, the thematic analysis showed increased interest in topics concerning advanced classification algorithms, performance evaluation methods, and the practical applications of TC. This study will help researchers recognize the recent trends in the area.