Overseas Research Trends Related to Research Ethics Using LDA Topic Modeling

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to derive clues about the development direction of research ethics and areas of interest which has recently become a social issue in Korea by confirming overseas research trends. Research design, data and methodology: We collected 2,760 articles in scienceON, which including ‘research ethics’ in their paper. For analysis, frequency analysis, word clouding, keyword association analysis, and LDA topic modeling were used. Results: It was confirmed that many of the papers were published in medical, bio, pharmaceutical, and nursing journals and its interest has been continuously increasing. From word frequency analysis, many words of medical fields such as health, clinical, and patient was confirmed. From topic modeling, 7 topics were extracted such as ethical policy development and human clinical ethics. Conclusions: We founded that overseas research trends on research ethics are related to basic aspects than Korea. This means that a fundamental approach to ethics and the application of strict standards can become the basis for cultivating an overall ethical awareness. Therefore, academic discussions on the application of strict standards for publishing ethics and conducting researches in various fields where community awareness and social consensus are necessary for overall ethical awareness.