Evolution of a body of knowledge: An analysis of terrorism research

摘要

This study provides an analysis of the development of contemporary terrorism research in the United States. Using on-line bibliometrics, tracing and citation analysis, it explores how terrorism researchers interacted with other knowledge producers to shape the perception of terrorism. The results indicate that the research area was influenced directly by knowledge producers such as the media and the U.S. government. They had major impacts on the definitions of terrorism, the types of data used in analysis, and the diffusion of ideas. This resulted in the creation of invisible colleges of pro-western terrorism researchers and generation of many terrorism studies from a one-sided perspective of terrorism from below (small insurgent groups).