Abstract: When fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithm is applied to document clustering， the result is not ideal because of its initial cluster center points’ random selection and falling into the local optimal solution easily. Aiming at improving the FCM’s clustering accuracy， a method is proposed which uses the black hole algorithm (BHA)， a heuristic algorithm， to find FCM’s optimal initial clustering centers. During searching for the FCM’s best initial clustering centers， the black hole is considered as the optimal option， and the FCM’s best initial clustering centers can be found. The experiment’s results show that the document clustering of FCM based on black hole algorithm can solve the problem that FCM is sensitive to initial centers and easy to fall into the local optimal solution， and finally， the clustering accuracy is improved significantly.

Key words: fuzzy c-means, black hole algorithm, document clustering, parameter searching, initial clustering center