Learnhowtoconductarobusttextanalysisprojectfromstarttofinish--andthendoitagain.Miningisthedominantmetaphorincomputationaltextanalysis.Whenminingtexts,theimpliedassumptionisthatanalystscanfindkernelsoftruth--theyjusthavetosiftthroughtherubbishfirst.Inthisbook,DustinStoltzandMarshallTaylorencouragetextanalyststoworkwithadifferentmetaphorinmind:mapping.Whenmappingtexts,thegoalisnotnecessarilytofindmeaningfulneedlesinthehaystack,butinsteadtocreatereductionsofthetexttodocumentpatterns.Justlikewithcartographicmaps,though,thetypeandnatureofthetextualmapisdependentonarangeofdecisionsonthepartoftheresearcher.Creatingreproducibleworkflowsisthereforecriticalforthetextanalyst.MappingTextsoffersapracticalintroductiontocomputationaltextanalysiswithstep-by-stepguidesonhowtoconductactualtextanalysisworkflowsintheRstatisticalcomputingenvironment.Thefocusisonsocialsciencequestionsandapplications,withdatarangingfromfakenewsandpresidentialcampaignstoStarTrekandpopstars.Thebookwalksthereaderthroughallfacetsofatextanalysisworkflow--fromunderstandingthetheoriesoflanguageembeddedintextanalysis,allthewaytomoreadvancedandcutting-edgetechniques.Thebookwillproveusefulnotonlytosocialscientists,butanyoneinterestedinconductingtextanalysisprojects.
