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Application of machine learning techniques to assess the trends and alignment of the funded research output

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  • Ebadi, Ashkan
  • Tremblay, Stéphane
  • Goutte, Cyril
  • Schiffauerova, Andrea

Abstract

Research and development activities are regarded as one of the most influencing factors of the future of a country. Large investments in research can yield a tremendous outcome in terms of a country’s overall wealth and strength. However, public financial resources of countries are often limited which calls for a wise and targeted investment. Scientific publications are considered as one of the main outputs of research investment. Although the general trend of scientific publications is increasing, a detailed analysis is required to monitor the research trends and assess whether they are in line with the top research priorities of the country. Such focused monitoring can shed light on scientific activities evolution as well as the formation of new research areas, thus helping governments to adjust priorities, if required. But monitoring the output of the funded research manually is not only very expensive and difficult, it is also subjective. Using structural topic models, in this paper we evaluated the trends in academic research performed by federally funded Canadian researchers during the time-frame of 2000–2018, covering more than 140,000 research publications. The proposed approach makes it possible to objectively and systematically monitor research projects, or any other set of documents related to research activities such as funding proposals, at large-scale. Our results confirm the accordance between the performed federally funded research projects and the top research priorities of Canada.

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  • Ebadi, Ashkan & Tremblay, Stéphane & Goutte, Cyril & Schiffauerova, Andrea, 2020. "Application of machine learning techniques to assess the trends and alignment of the funded research output," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:14:y:2020:i:2:s1751157718301901
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2020.101018
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    Cited by:

    1. Lijie Feng & Kehui Liu & Jinfeng Wang & Kuo-Yi Lin & Ke Zhang & Luyao Zhang, 2022. "Identifying Promising Technologies of Electric Vehicles from the Perspective of Market and Technical Attributes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-22, October.
    2. Soroush Taheri & Sadegh Aliakbary, 2022. "Research trend prediction in computer science publications: a deep neural network approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(2), pages 849-869, February.
    3. Hajibabaei, Anahita & Schiffauerova, Andrea & Ebadi, Ashkan, 2022. "Gender-specific patterns in the artificial intelligence scientific ecosystem," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    4. Mario Coccia & Saeed Roshani, 2024. "Evolution of topics and trends in emerging research fields: multiple analyses with entity linking, Mann–Kendall test and burst methods in cloud computing," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(9), pages 5347-5371, September.
    5. Ashkan Ebadi & Pengcheng Xi & Stéphane Tremblay & Bruce Spencer & Raman Pall & Alexander Wong, 2021. "Understanding the temporal evolution of COVID-19 research through machine learning and natural language processing," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 725-739, January.
    6. Fernandez Martinez, Roberto & Lostado Lorza, Ruben & Santos Delgado, Ana Alexandra & Piedra, Nelson, 2021. "Use of classification trees and rule-based models to optimize the funding assignment to research projects: A case study of UTPL," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    7. Benjamin M. Knisely & Holly H. Pavliscsak, 2023. "Research proposal content extraction using natural language processing and semi-supervised clustering: A demonstration and comparative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(5), pages 3197-3224, May.

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