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Key research themes
1. How can semantic and co-author network features improve automated author name disambiguation in large bibliographic databases?
This research theme investigates computational methods, especially machine learning and deep learning techniques, to resolve ambiguities in author names by leveraging semantic representations of publication metadata and co-authorship relationships. Addressing the challenges of homonymy and synonymy in author names is critical for the accuracy of digital libraries, bibliometric studies, and academic information retrieval. The use of neural network models combining textual semantic embeddings with co-author network information offers promising approaches to link ambiguous author names to their respective real-world individuals in large-scale datasets such as DBLP.
Key finding: This paper proposes 'WhoIs', a novel neural network model trained on DBLP bibliographic data that combines character-level embeddings of co-author names (Char2Vec) with contextual semantic embeddings of paper titles and... Read more
Key finding: The authors develop an enhanced unsupervised person name disambiguation approach integrating reduction and supervised query strategies over web-extracted online profiles, achieving approximately 67% accuracy and supporting... Read more
Key finding: This work presents an unsupervised clustering method for personal name disambiguation based on automatically extracted biographical features such as birth date, nationality, and occupation from text, illustrating that... Read more
Key finding: This paper introduces a plugin-based framework enabling systematic comparison and combination of name disambiguation methods using a shared dataset (WePS-2). Empirical results support that using full text representations... Read more
2. What socio-cultural and linguistic factors influence personal naming conventions and their implications for identity across diverse societies?
Personal naming practices reflect and construct social identities including ethnicity, gender, religion, social class, and cultural affiliation. This theme encompasses investigations into the semantic, sociolinguistic, and historical analyses of naming conventions from various global contexts, highlighting naming as a dynamic mediator of identity, social roles, and cultural continuity or change. Research in this area also addresses the perception of names, the social meanings encoded within names, and the impact of naming on experiences of discrimination or inclusion.
Key finding: Using survey data from Belgium, the study evidences that people primarily distinguish Belgian from non-Belgian names rather than identifying specific ethnic-national origins, and that names also encode perceptions of gender,... Read more
Key finding: This qualitative study on the Datooga pastoralist society reveals that personal names are semantically linked to socio-cultural phenomena such as birth circumstances, traditions, gender roles, and social norms, indicating... Read more
Key finding: Through corpus analysis of 2,000 names in North India, this study identifies four major typologies of Muslim personal names and notes significant etymological roots in Arabic and Persian languages. It documents generational... Read more
Key finding: This analytic sociolinguistic study explores American English naming practices, identifying diverse sources of personal names including religious, occupational, and popular names, and discusses how naming operates as a... Read more
Key finding: Research based on 18th-century Hungarian census tax data demonstrates that systematic analysis of personal names can robustly reflect language borders and ethnic group distributions historically. The study discusses... Read more
3. How do personal names function ontologically and symbolically in individual identity and social memory across cultural and historical contexts?
This theme investigates the philosophical, anthropological, and cultural significance of personal names, focusing on their role in constituting personal identity, mediating social recognition, and connecting individuals to historical lineage or collective memory. Studies explore how names embody power dynamics, spiritual beliefs, and legal or bureaucratic realities, and how naming intersections with societal structures impact self-perception and interpersonal relations.
Key finding: Through collaborative autoethnography coupled with DNA analysis, this paper reveals how surnames, specifically anglicised Irish and Jewish names Fitzpatrick and Keesing, are complex socio-political constructs shaped by... Read more
Key finding: Ethnographic data from Macau, Brazil, and Portugal reveal that speakers attribute a notion of 'truth' to personal names, understood as ontological markers that mediate individuals' subjecthood, unitariness, and... Read more
Key finding: This study details the vital role of names in ancient Egyptian culture, where personal names are inseparable from identity, social status, and even spiritual existence. It highlights how names functioned legally and ritually... Read more
Key finding: This article argues the intimate connection between a person’s given name and their sense of self and identity, emphasizing how names influence personality development and function as crucial narrative tools in literature for... Read more
Key finding: This paper discusses the complexities surrounding the accuracy and reliability of personal name data, emphasizing the necessity of balancing automated analytical processes with manual verification, and incorporating domain... Read more