How does digital humanities research talk about AI? A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Introduction. Despite scholarly work that looked into artificial intelligence (AI)’s impact on digital humanities (DH), there has been little comprehensive investigation into how AI has been reflected and adopted in DH scholarship. This paper addresses this gap by asking: What patterns can be observed in AI integration in the DH scholarly discourse?

Method. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 2,488 abstracts of articles published in three influential DH journals: digital scholarship in the humanities, digital humanities quarterly, and journal of cultural analytics.

Analysis. Focusing on abstracts containing the term ‘AI’ or ‘artificial intelligence,’ this study conducted four analyses: (1) temporal analysis of AI mentions, (2) collocation analysis, (3) word vector analysis, and (4) topic modeling.

Results. AI has been discussed in DH scholarship well before its recent rise in prominence. The recurring themes in these discussions encompass both technological and human-centred aspects.

Conclusions. AI has been integral to DH, and the discourse around AI in DH reflects the field’s dual focus on technology and the humanities. The bibliometric analysis presented in this paper illustrates how information science can inform and guide methodological reflections in DH, offering new insights into the future development of the field.