Exploring the effectiveness of word embedding based deep learning model for improving email classification

Abstract

Purpose

Classifying emails as ham or spam based on their content is essential. Determining the semantic and syntactic meaning of words and putting them in a high-dimensional feature vector form for processing is the most difficult challenge in email categorization. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of the pre-trained embedding model for the classification of emails using deep learning classifiers such as the long short-term memory (LSTM) model and convolutional neural network (CNN) model.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, global vectors (GloVe) and Bidirectional Encoder Representations Transformers (BERT) pre-trained word embedding are used to identify relationships between words, which helps to classify emails into their relevant categories using machine learning and deep learning models. Two benchmark datasets, SpamAssassin and Enron, are used in the experimentation.

Findings

In the first set of experiments, machine learning classifiers, the support vector machine (SVM) model, perform better than other machine learning methodologies. The second set of experiments compares the deep learning model performance without embedding, GloVe and BERT embedding. The experiments show that GloVe embedding can be helpful for faster execution with better performance on large-sized datasets.

Originality/value

The experiment reveals that the CNN model with GloVe embedding gives slightly better accuracy than the model with BERT embedding and traditional machine learning algorithms to classify an email as ham or spam. It is concluded that the word embedding models improve email classifiers accuracy.

Citation

Asudani, D.S., Nagwani, N.K. and Singh, P. (2022), "Exploring the effectiveness of word embedding based deep learning model for improving email classification", Data Technologies and Applications, Vol. 56 No. 4, pp. 483-505. https://doi.org/10.1108/DTA-07-2021-0191