Research topics and trends of endangered species using text mining in Korea

Continuous development due to human activities has extinctionized many floral and faunal species on earth and seriously threatened the ecosystem. Many countries are working hard to protect and restore endangered species by conducting a range of studies. This study conducted text mining and sentiment analysis based on the results of the previous studies on endangered species to present practical protection and conservation methods through identifying the research trend of endangered species in South Korea. This study found 451 peer-reviewed papers and abstracts. One hundred eight-seven species were studied, and the number of publications exponentially increased from the 1980s to the 2010s. The largest number of studies was conducted in the field of ecology (203 publications), and majority of studies examined plants (223 publications). “Taxa”, “plant”, “study”, and “Korea” appeared the most regardless of weighting factors. It was found that words associated with plant identification, habitat area, and environmental characteristics, those affecting the survival of species and those related to conservation policies formed a network relationship. The results of this study showed that researchers used positive words more than negative words from the 1990s to the 2010s, but the use of positive words decreased over time. The results implied that the restoration of endangered species was hard socially and scientifically. Understanding the research trend on endangered species in South Korea will be helpful in developing and proposing important directions for endangered species restoration research planned at the national level. We hope that various efforts are given to improve endangered species restoration research techniques and raise social awareness for producing practical achievements.