A Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Techniques for Network Communications Security

Presently, security is very paramount in all endeavors that aim to guarantee seamless network communications, including our confidentiality, integrity, availability, and trust. Thus, the objective of this bibliometric analysis is to examine and map the scientific advances in network communications security (NCS) in the recent years, while also projecting for future direction on the subject. To achieve this objective, web of science database was searched for related literature. While adopting preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach for inclusive and exclusive criteria, R package was executed for data analysis. Our findings, under the analysis of authors, countries, publications, and word analysis, show that Zhang Y (h-index=9; 13.4%) and Wang X (h-index=9; 12.4%) are the most contributing authors towards NCS. Anna University, India, is the most- contributing affiliated institution in this work, with 13.6%. Country- wise, USA is the most cited affiliated-countries, 6470 (32.1%). Of the sources, though Security and Communication networks journal has most studies on the subject, 91 (22.2%), IEEE Access owns highest h-index of 25 with citations of 1963 (35.7%). Also, keyword analysis reveals that in the recent years, “security”, “machine learning”, and “5G” are the most-relevant keywords used by authors. This study also reveals open interest, such as trust management, data models, and quantum mechanisms, for research community in network communications.