Connecting statistical analysis to address climate change: a bibliometric study of research trends in Africa and Europe.

ummary of Background Data Climate change poses a significant global challenge that affects human lives and ecosystems. Rising tem- peratures, sea level rise, droughts, and flooding disrupt essential systems such as water resources, energy production, agriculture, and biodiversity. Mitigating these effects requires robust data analysis, with sta- tistical tools playing a crucial role in identifying trends and estimating impacts. Although research often emphasizes global trends, regional perspectives are vital. Africa, highly vulnerable to climate variability, needs advanced statistical methodologies for risk assessment and mitigation strategies. In contrast, Europe leads climate research, employing sophisticated approaches to guide policy and drive innovation. These re- gions offer contrasting, yet complementary contexts for analyzing climate change through statistical lenses. Objectives This study investigates the intersection of climate change and statistical analysis through a bibliometric analysis of 2,083 articles retrieved from the Scopus database. The aim is to identify key publications, influ- ential authors, and leading journals, while also mapping research trends and collaborative networks across Africa and Europe. Methods We used biblioshiny and VOSviewer to conduct an in-depth analysis of co-authorship, co-citation, and key- word co-occurrence networks, providing insights into collaborative patterns and research trends. Then, we carried out a comparative evaluation of topic modelling techniques, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) [1], Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis (PLSA) [3] and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) [2], to identify the best model for extracting meaningful themes from data. Results The bibliometric analysis reveals that European countries dominate in publication volume and collabora- tive networks within climate research. This dominance is further highlighted by thematic analysis, which indicates notable shifts in research priorities over time. Specifically, there has been a marked increase in the integration of advanced statistical tools alongside regional climate models, reflecting a growing sophistica- tion in the field. Comparisons of topic modeling techniques show that LDA achieves the highest coherence score, underscoring its effectiveness in identifying semantically related terms. Conclusions A significant disparity between Africa and Europe in terms of research output and impact is highlighted. While European researchers lead in volume and influence, African contributions are often underrepresented, reflecting structural challenges, such as limited funding. This imbalance needs greater interdisciplinary and inter-regional collaborations to enhance knowledge sharing and capacity building in regions most affected by climate change. Strengthening these collaborations is essential to address these challenges and ensure that vulnerable regions, such as Africa, can contribute to and benefit from advances in climate research.