  In scientific research, the method is an indispensable means to solve
scientific problems and a critical research object. With the advancement of
sciences, many scientific methods are being proposed, modified, and used in
academic literature. The authors describe details of the method in the abstract
and body text, and key entities in academic literature reflecting names of the
method are called method entities. Exploring diverse method entities in a
tremendous amount of academic literature helps scholars understand existing
methods, select the appropriate method for research tasks, and propose new
methods. Furthermore, the evolution of method entities can reveal the
development of a discipline and facilitate knowledge discovery. Therefore, this
article offers a systematic review of methodological and empirical works
focusing on extracting method entities from full-text academic literature and
efforts to build knowledge services using these extracted method entities.
Definitions of key concepts involved in this review were first proposed. Based
on these definitions, we systematically reviewed the approaches and indicators
to extract and evaluate method entities, with a strong focus on the pros and
cons of each approach. We also surveyed how extracted method entities are used
to build new applications. Finally, limitations in existing works as well as
potential next steps were discussed.
