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With the huge amount of published research papers, retrieving relevant information is a difficult task for any researcher. Effective clustering algorithms can help improve and simplify the retrieval process. Here, we propose an approach for automatic clustering for text document using a Self-Organizing Map (SOM). It is one of unsupervised artificial neural network that widely used for data analysis, data compression, clustering, and data mining. The quality and accuracy of a SOM algorithm depends on the selection of values for some of its parameters which are its initial learning rate, SOM matrix dimensions, and the number of iterations. Best values are typically selected using trial and error; however, in the current paper we suggest a more systematic approach to parameters optimization using the genetic algorithm. The proposed method is applied to cluster 3 scientific papers datasets using their keywords. Similar research papers were mapped closer to each other. Clustering results were validated using the Dunn index.

A Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is a powerful tool for data analysis, clustering, and dimensionality reduction. It is an unsupervised artificial neural network that maps a set of n-dimensional vectors to a two-dimensional topographic map. Being unsupervised, SOMs need little input to be successfully deployed. The only inputs needed by a SOM are its own parameters such as its size, number of iterations, and its initial learning rate. The quality and accuracy of the solution offered by a SOM depend on choosing the right values for such parameters. Different attempts have been made to use the genetic algorithm to optimize these parameters for random inputs or for specific applications such as the traveling salesman problem. To the best knowledge of the authors, no roadmaps for selecting these parameters were presented in the literature. In this paper, we present the first results of a proposed roadmap for optimizing these parameters using the genetic algorithm and we show its effectiveness by applying it on the classical color clustering problem as a case study.