Online user comments (UCs) as the most popular type of online audience participation nowadays form a popular and important field of research. The widespread examination of UCs across different disciplines leads to a variety of terms and constructs and thus a missing clarity about the discussed topics. With this computational scoping review, we uncovered six relevant, overarching topics and their development in the field. Due to the combination of an automatic text analysis via structural topic modeling and a qualitative evaluation, we were able to describe the current state of UC research and found an inherently interdisciplinary body of literature. We observed an inter- and intradisciplinary fragmentation and call for a systematization of the used terms, constructs, and examined topics.

Digital trace data and computational methods are increasingly being used by researchers to study mental health phenomena (i.e. psychopathology and well-being) in social media. Computer-assisted mental health research is not simply a continuation of previous studies, but rather raises ethical, conceptual and methodological issues that are critical to behavioural science but have not yet been systematically explored. Based on a systematic review of n = 147 studies, we reveal a multidisciplinary field of research that has grown immensely since 2010, spanning the humanities, social sciences, and engineering. We find that a substantial majority of studies in our sample lack a standardized form of ethical consideration, focus on specific constructs and have a rather narrow focus on specific social media platforms. Based on our findings, we discuss how computational elements have influenced mental health research, highlight academic gaps and suggest promising directions for future studies.