Journals / Mersin Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Lokman Hekim Tıp Tarihi ve Folklorik Tıp Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 16 Sayı: 3

The Investigation of Animal Welfare Themes with Text-mining in Rodent Research

Kemirgen Araştırmalarında Hayvan Refahı Temalarının Metin Madenciliği ile İncelenmesi

Özge Selin Çevik(MERSİN ÜNİVERSİTESİ, TIP FAKÜLTESİ)0000-0002-2211-7600
Didem Derici Yıldırım(MERSİN ÜNİVERSİTESİ, TIP FAKÜLTESİ)0000-0001-7709-6133
Pages
961–969
Publication Date
2026-09-28
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

These insights highlight the need for a more balanced consideration of all 3Rs to advance ethically responsible and scientifically rigorous animal research.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:Objectiveː The multifaceted nature of welfare assessment creates rich textual content that can be analyzed using text mining approaches to understand how different welfare dimensions (3Rs) are prioritized and discussed.
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Key Findings & Data:Methodː A search protocol containing the keywords "animal welfare," "3R principle," and "rat, mice, mouse" was applied to the PubMed database, yielding 828 studies.
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Conclusion & Impact:These insights highlight the need for a more balanced consideration of all 3Rs to advance ethically responsible and scientifically rigorous animal research.
🔬Design:Modeling & Simulation
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Hayvan refahı · Metin madenciliği · Kemirgen

Abstract

Objectiveː The multifaceted nature of welfare assessment creates rich textual content that can be analyzed using text mining approaches to understand how different welfare dimensions (3Rs) are prioritized and discussed. Through a systematic examination of text mining methodologies, topic modeling approaches, and current practices in animal welfare research. This study aims to examine how the concept of animal welfare is addressed in the scientific literature, particularly in studies involving rodent models such as rats and mice, using text mining techniques. Methodː A search protocol containing the keywords "animal welfare," "3R principle," and "rat, mice, mouse" was applied to the PubMed database, yielding 828 studies. Word frequency, word relationships, and sentiment analysis were conducted using text mining, and the R (v4.5.1) programming language was used for the analyses. Resultsː The text analyzed a dataset of 2633 terms, revealing that mice were more frequently encountered than other species. A word cloud was created and strong associations were found between frequent terms. The sentiment classification model achieved maximum precision and recall, with recall values of 1,00 for both negative and positive sentiment classes. The mean and median sentiments were positive, indicating a positive corpus. Conclusionː Our findings show that welfare discussions in rodent studies are dominated by mice and focus primarily on Refinement and Reduction while Replacement remain underrepresented. These insights highlight the need for a more balanced consideration of all 3Rs to advance ethically responsible and scientifically rigorous animal research.

Özet

Amaç: Refah değerlendirmesinin çok yönlü doğası, farklı refah boyutlarının (3R’ler) nasıl önceliklendirildiğini ve tartışıldığını anlamak için metin madenciliği yaklaşımlarıyla analiz edilebilecek zengin bir metinsel içerik oluşturur. Metin madenciliği yöntemleri, konu modelleme yaklaşımları ve hayvan refahı araştırmalarındaki güncel uygulamaların sistematik bir incelemesi aracılığıyla hesaplamalı metin analizinin kemirgen çalışmalarında refah kavramlarının nasıl ele alındığını anlamadaki hem potansiyelini hem de zorluklarını vurgulamaktadır. Bu çalışma, özellikle sıçan ve fare gibi kemirgen modellerini içeren çalışmalarda, bilimsel literatürde hayvan refahı kavramının nasıl ele alındığını metin madenciliği teknikleri kullanarak incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Yöntem: PubMed veri tabanında “animal welfare”, “3R principle”, “rat, mice, mouse” anahtar kelimeleri içeren bir arama protokolü uygulanmış ve 828 çalışmaya ulaşılmıştır. Metin madenciliği ile kelime sıklığı, kelimeler arası ilişkiler, duygu analizi yapılmış olup, analizler için R (v4.5.1) programlama dilinden yararlanılmıştır. Bulgular: Metin, 2633 terimden oluşan bir veri kümesi üzerinde analiz edilmiştir ve farelerin diğer türlere göre daha sık yer aldığı görülmüştür. Kelime bulutu oluşturulmuş ve sık kullanılan terimler arasında güçlü ilişkiler tespit edilmiştir. Duygu sınıflandırma modeli maksimum hassasiyet ve duyarlılığa ulaşmış; hem negatif hem de pozitif duygu sınıfları için duyarlılık değerleri 1,00 olarak bulunmuştur. Ortalama ve medyan duygu değerleri pozitif çıkmış, bu da genel olarak olumlu bir metin kümesine işaret etmektedir. Sonuç: Bulgularımız, kemirgen çalışmalarındaki refah tartışmalarının fareler tarafından domine edildiğini ve esas olarak iyileştirme (Refinement) ve azaltma (reduction) üzerine odaklandığını, buna karşın yerine koyma (Replacement) boyutlarının daha az temsil edildiğini göstermektedir. Bu bulgular, etik açıdan sorumlu ve bilimsel olarak titiz hayvan araştırmalarını ilerletmek için tüm 3R’lerin daha dengeli bir şekilde dikkate alınması gerektiğini vurgulamaktadır.

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Cite This Article

Çevik, Ö. S., Yıldırım, D. D., *, Ö. S. Ç. (2026). The Investigation of Animal Welfare Themes with Text-mining in Rodent Research. Mersin Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Lokman Hekim Tıp Tarihi ve Folklorik Tıp Dergisi, Cilt: 16 Sayı: 3, 961–969. https://doi.org/10.31020/mutftd.1919058

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