Text Mining Summer School

This blog was written by Vito Giordano, one of the team who led our Text Mining Summer School earlier this year. 

The Text Analysis in Innovation & Research Studies Summer School brought together academics, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, early career scholars, policy analysts, R&D managers, data analysts, and professionals from industry and funding bodies interested in using advanced text analysis methods to extract insights from unstructured textual data.

The course was designed for participants working across innovation policy, science and technology studies, data science, and research management. It provided a comprehensive overview of the main concepts, data retrieval strategies, and advanced Natural Language Processing techniques, including the use of Large Language Models. Through a combination of theoretical sessions and five hours of hands-on activities, participants had the opportunity to develop practical skills for analysing patents, scientific publications, and other textual sources relevant to Innovation and Research Studies.

One of the most valuable aspects of the event was the atmosphere in the classroom. The discussion was highly engaging, and many interesting questions emerged, especially around the intersection between qualitative and quantitative research. This created a stimulating environment where participants could reflect not only on the technical aspects of text mining, but also on its methodological implications.

A key takeaway from the course was that text mining methods can support both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Understanding how these methods can be used at different stages of the research process, and how they can be combined with other methodological traditions, will become increasingly important in the future. As textual data continues to grow in relevance for studying innovation, science, technology, and policy, the ability to integrate computational techniques with rigorous research design represents a crucial skill for researchers and practitioners alike.