ChatGPT Research: Insights from Early Studies Using Network Scientometric Approach

The introduction of generative AI models, especially OpenAI's ChatGPT, has profoundly impacted several fields. To uncover key fields of research, key research clusters, emerging research topics, key research contributions within grown and emerging clusters, and key insightful implications for various stakeholders, this study analyses the early body of scientific literature (n=1873) related to ChatGPT research indexed in Dimensions (from November 29, 2022 to May 20, 2022) database using network scientometric approach. This approach employs network mining of two major networks related to scientific literature for knowledge discovery exercise. Science mapping analysis using the Fields of Research (FoRs) network revealed key fields of research impacted by ChatGPT. Scientific literature mining is conducted using publications citation network analysis with the help of the Flow Vergence model and cluster analysis. Major growth clusters that contributed and might continue significantly to the network's growth are identified and found to be associated with education in general, medical education, medical diagnosis and clinical writing, scientific writing, and systematic literature review. Important emerging clusters are found to mostly deal with novel applications like harmful content detection in social media, annotation, assessment, etc., Further, the dynamics of grown clusters and emerging clusters was tracked on Dec 31, 2023 (after six months). All the clusters are found to have grown significantly. Cluster merging is witnessed in the case of grown clusters, making the new clusters multi-themed and overwhelmed by incremental contributions. However, the merger of emerging clusters contributed to the formation of relatively better-performing clusters. Through this knowledge discovery exercise, the paper highlights the knowledge and technology advancement of ChatGPT and its potential in numerous fields and sheds light on pressing problems and the moral dilemmas raised by its use. The analysis reveals several policy implications for various stakeholders, including education and research policymakers.