Abstract：Identifying research fronts in NLP applications in library and information science using meta-analysis approaches Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the research fronts by analysing highly cited core papers adjusted with the age of a paper in library and information scienceLISwhere natural language processingNLPis being applied significantlyDesignmethodologyapproach By excavating international databases3087 core papers that received at least 5of the total citations have been identifiedBy calculating the average mean years of these core papersand total citations receiveda CPTcitationpublicationtimevalue was calculated in all 20 fronts to understand how a front is relatively receiving greater attention among peers within a course of timeOne theme article has been finally identified from each of these 20 frontsFindings Bidirectional encoder representations from transformers with CPT value 1608 followed by sentiment analysis with CPT 1292 received highest attention in NLP researchColumbia University New Yorkin terms of UniversityJournal of the American Medical Informatics Associationin terms of journalsUSA followed by People Republic of Chinain terms of country and XuHUniversity of Texasin terms of author are the top in these frontsIt is identified that the NLP applications boost the performance of digital libraries and automated library systems in the digital environmentPractical implications Any research fronts that are identified in the findings of this paper may be used as a base for researchers who intended to perform extensive research on NLPOriginalityvalue To the best of the authorsknowledgethe methodology adopted in this paper is the first of its kind where meta-analysis approach has been used for understanding the research fronts in sub field like NLP for a broad domain like LISLibrary AutomationThe application of NLP enhances the performance of digital libraries and automation library systems in digital environmentsThis study mainly explores the application of natural language processingNLPin book informationLISand analyzes the core papers that are highly referenced in this field