[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-83956-en":3,"doc-seo-83956-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},83956,687197207639,"Asher","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",8,"Research & Report","When AI Classifies What Counts as Public Administration","This study examines how alternative systems of scholarly representation identify and characterize broad public administration (PA) and AI-in-related public administration (AI-in-PA) scholarship. Using Web of Science and OpenAlex, the research compares five author-defined, citation-driven, and AI-assisted representation approaches. Results show major differences in corpus size, publication types, outlets, temporal development, and thematic clustering. Alternative approaches often map distinct knowledge domains, with minimal overlap, indicating that algorithmic organization shapes visibility, structure, boundaries, and potential interpretive bias; human judgment remains essential.","When AI Classifies:  \nWhat Counts as Public Administration?  \nShaoming Cheng  \nDepartment of Public Policy and Administration  \nFlorida International University  \n[scheng@fiu.edu](scheng@fiu.edu)  \nLaurie Schintler  \nSchar School of Policy and Government  \nGeorge Mason University  \n[lschintl@gmu.edu](lschintl@gmu.edu)  \nAbstract: This study examines how alternative systems of scholarly representation identify and characterize broad public administration (PA) and artificial intelligence related public administration (AI-in-PA) scholarship. Using Web of Science and OpenAlex, it compares five approaches based on author-defined, citation-driven, and AI-assisted representations. The results highlight substantial differences in corpus size, publication types, publishing outlets, temporal development, and thematic clustering and structure. The alternative approaches often identify different knowledge domains instead of varied subsets of the same scholarship and therefore produce distinct representations, as evidenced by no overlap in publications and publishing outlets across representations. The findings suggest that algorithmic knowledge organization increasingly influences how interdisciplinary scholarship is classified, structured, and understood and, epistemologically, how its visibility, intellectual structure, and boundaries are represented. AIenabled scholarly classifications and representations are not neutral but interpretative, likely selfreinforcing, and potentially constrain the evolution and adaptation of disciplinary boundaries. Human disciplinary judgment is essential and is complemented rather than replaced.  \nKeywords: Artificial Intelligence, Public Administration, OpenAlex, Scholarly Classification, Scholarly Representation, Disciplinary Boundaries, Algorithmic Knowledge Organization  \nWhen AI Classifies:  \nWhat Counts as Public Administration?  \nIntroduction  \nWhat counts as public administration (PA)? Traditionally, the boundaries of a discipline have been negotiated and defined collectively and collaboratively through practitioners and scholars, journals, citation communities, professional associations, intellectual traditions, and ongoing debates over the scope and identity of the field. Increasingly, however, these boundaries are mediated through scholarly indexing and classification systems assisted by artificial intelligence (AI). When bibliographic infrastructures rely more heavily on automated topic modeling, citation network analysis, semantic similarity measures, and algorithmic classification, AI is becoming an active actor, instead of merely technical tools, in the governance infrastructure of science. Algorithmic knowledge organization can dictate which research themes appear central, peripheral, interdisciplinary, or even visible at all within a field. Epistemologically, what constitutes PA is no longer determined solely through intellectual developments within the discipline, but also by algorithms that classify, index, and retrieve disciplinary knowledge. They may impose computational representations of disciplinary boundaries and identity and may, potentially, introduce and reinforce systematic biases into how domains of knowledge are represented, connected, and understood.  \nThe implications are particularly important for PA because it has long been an interdisciplinary field, drawing theories, methods, and knowledge from political science, economics, management, sociology, information science, and public policy. Important developments relevant to PA, hence, often emerge through diverse publication channels and disciplinary communities (Olsen et al., 2026; Raadschelders, 2011) . The rapid growth of AIrelated scholarship further intensifies these interdisciplinary dynamics, as research rapidly  \ncombines administrative, ethical, managerial, and governance concerns with machine learning, natural language processing, computational methods, digital infrastructures, and emerging AI applications (McDo","cbCais2zBNIArobv","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCais2zBNIArobv","pdf",4846912,4,1,42,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Research Motivation and Problem Statement\n## Interdisciplinary Setting: PA and AI-in-PA\n## Comparative Databases and Classification Logics\n## Method and Search/Classification Design","[{\"question\":\"How does AI change what counts as public administration (PA)?\",\"answer\":\"PA boundaries are increasingly mediated by AI-assisted indexing and classification systems. Algorithmic topic modeling, citation network analysis, and similarity measures can determine central or peripheral themes and influence visibility and perceived disciplinary identity.\"},{\"question\":\"Why compare Web of Science with OpenAlex in this study?\",\"answer\":\"The two infrastructures use different organizational logics. Web of Science relies more on human-curated, journal-level subject categories, while OpenAlex uses AI-assisted, publication-level classifications derived from citation networks, semantic similarity, topic assignment, and language models.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the study’s findings suggest about algorithmic scholarly representations?\",\"answer\":\"Algorithmic organization is interpretative rather than neutral, potentially self-reinforcing and bias-inducing. The results indicate that different representation approaches can identify different knowledge domains, with limited overlap, and therefore distinct depictions of disciplinary boundaries.\"}]",1784191658,106,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"when-ai-classifies-what-counts-as-public-administration","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/when-ai-classifies-what-counts-as-public-administration/83956/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-25","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"How does AI change what counts as public administration (PA)?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"PA boundaries are increasingly mediated by AI-assisted indexing and classification systems. Algorithmic topic modeling, citation network analysis, and similarity measures can determine central or peripheral themes and influence visibility and perceived disciplinary identity.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Why compare Web of Science with OpenAlex in this study?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"The two infrastructures use different organizational logics. Web of Science relies more on human-curated, journal-level subject categories, while OpenAlex uses AI-assisted, publication-level classifications derived from citation networks, semantic similarity, topic assignment, and language models.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What do the study’s findings suggest about algorithmic scholarly representations?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Algorithmic organization is interpretative rather than neutral, potentially self-reinforcing and bias-inducing. The results indicate that different representation approaches can identify different knowledge domains, with limited overlap, and therefore distinct depictions of disciplinary boundaries.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]