"From Symbols to Embeddings: A Tale of Two Representations in Computati" by Huimin Chen, Cheng Yang et al.

Article Title

From Symbols to Embeddings: A Tale of Two Representations in Computational Social Science

Authors

Huimin Chen, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Cheng Yang, School of Computer Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Xuanming Zhang, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Zhiyuan Liu, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Maosong Sun, Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jianbin Jin, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Keywords

Computational Social Science (CSS), symbol-based representation, embedding-based representation, social network

Abstract

Computational Social Science (CSS), aiming at utilizing computational methods to address social science problems, is a recent emerging and fast-developing field. The study of CSS is data-driven and significantly benefits from the availability of online user-generated contents and social networks, which contain rich text and network data for investigation. However, these large-scale and multi-modal data also present researchers with a great challenge: how to represent data effectively to mine the meanings we want in CSS? To explore the answer, we give a thorough review of data representations in CSS for both text and network. Specifically, we summarize existing representations into two schemes, namely symbol-based and embedding-based representations, and introduce a series of typical methods for each scheme. Afterwards, we present the applications of the above representations based on the investigation of more than 400 research articles from 6 top venues involved with CSS. From the statistics of these applications, we unearth the strength of each kind of representations and discover the tendency that embedding-based representations are emerging and obtaining increasing attention over the last decade. Finally, we discuss several key challenges and open issues for future directions. This survey aims to provide a deeper understanding and more advisable applications of data representations for CSS researchers.

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Chen, Huimin; Yang, Cheng; Zhang, Xuanming; Liu, Zhiyuan; Sun, Maosong; and Jin, Jianbin (2021) "From Symbols to Embeddings: A Tale of Two Representations in Computational Social Science," Journal of Social Computing: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.23919/JSC.2021.0011
Available at: https://dc.tsinghuajournals.com/journal-of-social-computing/vol2/iss2/2

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