Topic model based on co-occurrence word networks for unbalanced short text datasets

Abstract

We propose a straightforward solution for detecting scarce topics in unbalanced short-text datasets. Our approach, named CWUTM (Topic model based on co-occurrence word networks for unbalanced short text datasets), addresses the challenge of sparse and unbalanced short text topics by mitigating the effects of incidental word co-occurrence. This allows our model to prioritize the identification of scarce topics (low-frequency topics). Unlike previous methods, CWUTM leverages co-occurrence word networks to capture the topic distribution of each word, and enhances the sensitivity in identifying scarce topics by redefining the calculation of node activity and normalizing the representation of both scarce and abundant topics to some extent. Moreover, CWUTM adopts Gibbs sampling, similar to LDA, making it easily adaptable to various application scenarios. Extensive experimental validation on unbalanced short-text datasets demonstrates the superiority of CWUTM compared to baseline approaches in discovering scarce topics. According to the experimental results, the proposed model is effective in early and accurate detection of emerging topics or unexpected events on social platforms.