Current perspectives on the application of bayesian networks in different domains

Bayesian networks are powerful tools for representing relations of dependence among variables of a domain under uncertainty. Over the last decades, applications of Bayesian networks have been developed for a wide variety of subject areas, in tasks such as learning, modeling, forecasting and decision-making. Out of hundreds of related papers found, we picked a sample of 150 to study the trends of such applications over a 16-year interval. We classified the publications according to their corresponding domain of application, and then analyzed the tendency to develop Bayesian networks in determined areas of research. We found a set of indicators that help better explain these tendencies: the levels of formalization, data accuracy and data accessibility of a domain, and the level of human intervention in the primary data. The results and methodology of the current study provide insight into potential areas of research and application of Bayesian networks. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018