Online Terrorism Studies: Analysis of the Literature

Abstract

This study examined the literature on online terrorism studies between 2001 and 2022 and compared themes across journal segments and funded research. The results showed that there is a relationship between funding and the number of publications in recent years. While themes in the core terrorism journals more likely to follow the traditional terrorism studies, funded research (e.g. Computer Science Journals) focus more on social media, far-right groups and hate speech utilizing new research tools such as machine learning and text mining techniques. These new tools enable researchers to study different dimensions of the phenomenon, but these works are not published in terrorism journals. The results also point to a gap between core terrorism journals and Computer Science journals, which heralds at least two potential developments in the future: i) emergence of specialized journals focusing on terrorism and concepts like social media, populism, hate speech, text mining, machine learning and so on; and ii) more collaborative outputs between terrorism researchers and computer scientists.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Statista, “Number of Terrorist Attacks in the European Union (EU) in 2020, by Member State.”

2 Bart, Schuurman, “Research on Terrorism, 2007–2016: A Review of Data, Methods, and Authorship,” 2.

3 Antony Richards, “From Terrorism to ‘Radicalization’ to ‘Extremism’: Counterterrorism Imperative or Loss of Focus?,” 375.

4 J. M. Berger, “Researching Violent Extremism: The State of Play,” 2–3.

5 Berger, "Researching Violent Extremism", 2–3.

6 See, for example, Maura Conway, “Determining the Role of the Internet in Violent Extremism and Terrorism: Six Suggestions for Progressing Research,” 77; Gill et al., “Terrorist Use of the Internet by the Numbers: Quantifying Behaviors, Patterns, and Processes,” 99.

7 Marc Sageman, “The Stagnation,” 572.

8 Sageman, “The Stagnation,” 569; Schuurman, “Research on Terrorism,” 465.

9 Jeroen Gunning, “Babies and Bathwaters: Reflecting on the Pitfalls of Critical Terrorism Studies,” 241; Richard Jackson, “The Study of Terrorism 10 Years after 9/11: Successes, Issues, Challenges,” 10; Magnus Ranstorp, “Introduction: Mapping Terrorism Research–Challenges and Priorities,” 20.

10 Bart Schuurman, “Topics in Terrorism Research: Reviewing Trends and Gaps, 2007-2016,” 465.

11 We acknowledge that much of terrorism does not take place online. The use of ‘online terrorism’ in this article is intended to encompass studies or research that focus on various issues related to ‘online’, ‘extremism,’ and ‘terrorism.’ Related keywords for this purpose are listed in the method section.

12 Waleed M. Sweileh et al., “Bibliometric Analysis of Global Migration Health Research in Peer-Reviewed Literature (2000–2016),” 2.

13 Antony F. J. Van Raan, “Reference-Based Publication Networks with Episodic Memories,” 550.

14 Munawar Fuad, “International Publications on Radicalism and Terrorism in Indonesia: A Bibliometric Assessment,” 98.

15 Mayur Gaikwad et al., “A Bibliometric Analysis of Online Extremism Detection,” 2.

16 Massimo Aria and Corrado Cuccurullo, “Bibliometrix: An R-Tool for Comprehensive Science Mapping Analysis,” 959.

17 The query extracts articles available as of 31st of December 2021 but some articles were available online although they will be published on specific journal issues in 2022, so they were marked as the publications of 2022.

18 Nees Jan Van Eck and Ludo Waltman, “VOSviewer Manual.”

19 Aria and Cuccurullo, “Bibliometrix: An R-Tool,” 959.

20 Mathieu Bastian, Sebastien Heymann, and Mathieu Jacomy, “Gephi: An Open Source Software for Exploring and Manipulating Networks,” 361.

21 Web of Science, “Research Areas (Categories / Classification).”

22 The query was run on January 10, 2022 and when query would be run later, more articles would appear since indexing still continues.

23 Samuel Bradford, “Sources of Information on Specific Subjects,” 176.

24 Garret T. Venable et al., “Bradford’s Law: Identification of the Core Journals for Neurosurgery and Its Subspecialties,” 569.

25 Bastian, Heymann, and Jacomy, “Gephi: An Open Source Software” 361.

26 Fatih Demiroz, “The Use of Social Media during Disasters,” 225.

27 “Bibliographic Coupling between Scientific Papers.”

28 Van Raan, “Reference-Based Publication,” 552.

29 Kevin W. Boyack and Richards Klavans, “Co‐citation Analysis, Bibliographic Coupling, and Direct Citation: Which Citation Approach Represents the Research Front Most Accurately?,” 2391.

30 Boyack and Klavans, "Co‐citation Analysis," 2391.

31 Van Raan, “Reference-Based Publication,” 549.

32 Eugene Garfield and Irving H. Sher, “Brief Communication Keywords PlusAlgorithmic Derivative Indexing,” 298.

33 Van Eck and Waltman, “VOSviewer Manual.”

34 Van Eck and Waltman, “VOSviewer Manual.”

35 Van Eck and Waltman, “VOSviewer Manual.”

36 “Refugee Data Finder.”

37 Sageman, “The Stagnation,” 569.