The Synergy of Scientometric Analysis and Knowledge Mapping with Topic Models: Modelling the Development Trajectories of Information Security and Cyber-Security Research

An important part of an organisation’s mission is protecting its information assets from inside or outside threats. As the information environment has become more diverse and inclusive, security concern has shifted from information assets resided in the organisation to information assets and networked devices exposed to broader cyberspace, such as cloud or Internet of things environment and mobile Internet. Organisations have to keep up with the knowledge and trends in information security and cyber-security to safeguard their information assets. Knowledge mapping will aid in this sort of knowledge management process. Mandatory standards and government regulations help industries establish best practices in cyber-security. Knowledge mapping and scientometric analysis across disciplines also provide a tracking system to notify researchers and practitioners should the new solutions and technology facilitating threat detection emerge. While various topics in information security and cyber-security have been extensively investigated in academia, identifying salient themes and development trajectories in information security and cyber-security research is relatively unexplored. This study employs scientometric analysis and topic modelling to develop knowledge maps that visualise core concepts associated with information security and cyber-security research over time and across disciplines. With scientometric analysis and knowledge mapping using topic models, this study identifies the commonality, difference, and relationship between information security and cyber-security research domains. This approach could gain insights into how these research areas have evolved and might be improved concerning learning and teaching cyber-security. The proposed approach to developing the knowledge map may be extended to other research areas.