Discovering the recent research in natural language processing field based on a statistical approach

Abstract

With the purpose of discovering the recent status of natural language processing research field, this paper presents a data-driven statistical method by utilizing bibliometrics and social network analysis on related publications. On 3,222 academic publications retrieved from Web of Science core collection during year 2007-2016, this paper explores literature distribution characteristics using descriptive statistical method, research hotspots using k-means clustering method, and cooperation relationships among authors and affiliations using network analysis method. The findings provide relevant learners and researchers with information to keep abreast of the research status of NLP field.