Analysis of the fuzzy set literature using phrases

The topic of fuzzy set theory was examined using the occurrence of phrases in bibliographic records. Records containing the word fuzzy, were downloaded from over 100 databases, and from these records, phrases were extracted surrounding the word fuzzy. A methodology was developed to trim this list of phrases to a list of high frequency phrases relevant to fuzzy set theory. This list of phrases was in turn used to extract records from the original downloaded set, which were (algorithmically) relevant to fuzzy set theory. This set of records was then analysed to show the development of the topic of fuzzy set theory, the distribution of the fuzzy phrases over time and the frequency distribution of the fuzzy phrases. In addition, the field of the bibliographic record in which the phrase occurred was examined, as well as the first appearance of a particular fuzzy phrase.