PRISM: PRIor from Corpus Statistics for Topic Modeling

Abstract

Topic modeling seeks to uncover latent semantic structure in text, with LDA providing a foundational probabilistic framework. While recent methods often incorporate external knowledge (e.g., pre-trained embeddings), such reliance limits applicability in emerging or underexplored domains. We introduce PRISM, a corpus-intrinsic method that derives a Dirichlet parameter from word co-occurrence statistics to initialize LDA without altering its generative process. Experiments on text and single cell RNA-seq data show that PRISM improves topic coherence and interpretability, rivaling models that rely on external knowledge. These results underscore the value of corpus-driven initialization for topic modeling in resource-constrained settings. Code is available at: https://github.com/shaham-lab/PRISM.