A scientometrics study of key counter-terrorism and counter-extremism approaches in Russian research publications (2013–2022)

Objective . The study is an attempt to use VOSviewer software for a scientometrics analysis of the main prospects to counter terrorism and extremism, presented by Russian fellow researchers in their publications issued within the 2023-2022 decade. Methods . The analysis of the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) generated a dataset of 13,715 publications about terrorism, published by Russian investigators. We used VOSviewer version 1.6.20 to construct a bibliometric cluster map for 12 keyword iterations and 30 co-authored or individually published papers. Results and discussion . On average, (1372 ± 140) articles were published annually, with the number of publications showing a decline in recent years. Papers on terrorism included 48.5% on the science of law, 17.9% on political science, 7.2% on historical science, and 6.3% on economic science. Journals cited in international indexing databases were scarce, with poorly demanded publications characterized by low citation counts and approximately 52% of self-citations. Journals with the utmost number of publications, top organizations and authors were outlined. VOSviewer split the keyword in 10 clusters demonstrating the international, legal and organizational framework for countering terrorism and extremism. Conclusion . Although unlikely to be entirely eradicated, terrorism can be diminished using effective counter-terrorism measures. Our scientometrics study provides extra information support for professional research on countering terrorism. A digital research library offers valuable prospects to users; the analyzed dataset included 72.7% of papers available for free in full-text version.