A knowledge network production: Ten years of information security research

Abstract

This study explores and maps the intellectual structure of information security studies from 1998 to 2007, by analyzing 3059 cited references of 223 articles from information security in ssci and sci databases, bibliometric, multivariate analysis and social network analysis techniques used to map the important publications and most influential scholars, as well as the correlations between publications through analysis of citations and co-citations. A systematic and objective evaluative tool is introduced to determine the relative importance of different knowledge nodes in the development of information security research. Five factors emerged: (1) Information security management and assessment, (2) information security investment, (3) information security techniques, (4) information systems security monitoring and development (5) cryptographic technology design. Key words: Information security, intellectual structure, bibliometric technique, social network analysis.