Ontology-Based Exploratory Text Analysis as a Tool for Identification of Research Trends in Polish Universities of Economics

Abstract

In this article, we present a systematic review of the literature on the current situation in the publication of employees of Polish economic universities in the period 2017–2021. During the research, we used the method of exploratory text analysis supported by domain knowledge defined by ontology (ontology-based exploratory text analysis/ontology-based text). The JEL classification was used as an ontology. We analyzed 4,862 publications from 2017–2021 in the field of economic sciences. Using bipartite graphs (in R package: bipartite), the authors analyzed the connections between topics and individual universities (Krakow University of Economics, University of Economics in Katowice, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Warsaw School of Economics). This review summarizes the current research directions of employees of Polish economic universities in 2017–2021. We found that the primary research efforts centered on Microeconomics, Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth. In the analyzed period, we notice an increase in research in areas: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth; Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Environmental and Ecological Economics; Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior; Economic Systems; Industrial Organization. Moreover, it is possible to point to a relatively uniform research area and the lack of explicit scientific specialization among the analyzed universities.