Abstract

In the era of digital transformation, discussions about digital curation have become increasingly active not only in academia but also in various fields. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the conceptual changes in digital curation over time, particularly by examining the definition statements related to digital curation as described in academic literature. To achieve this, academic research papers from 2009, when the term “digital curation” was first mentioned, to 2023 were collected, and definition statements that explained relevant concepts were extracted. Basic statistical analyses were conducted. Using DMR topic modeling and word networks, the relationships among keywords and the changes in their importance over time were examined, and a conceptual map of digital curation was made focusing on the main topics. The results revealed that the concept of digital curation is primarily centered around the themes of “data preservation,” “traditional curator roles,” and “product recommendation curation.” Depending on the researchers’ intentions for utilizing digital curation, the concept was expanded to include topics such as “content distribution and classification,” “information usage,” and “curation models.” This study is significant in that it analyzed the concept of digital curation through definition statements reflecting the perspectives of researchers. Additionally, the study holds value in explicitly identifying changes in the concepts that researchers emphasize over time through the trends in topic prevalence.