Mapping the Frontiers of Cybersecurity and Data Protection: Insights from a Bibliometric Study

In an era of escalating digital threats and growing dependence on online systems, cybersecurity and user data protection have become critical global priorities. This study aims to identify cutting-edge discoveries and emerging trends in the field through a bibliometric analysis of 708 articles indexed in the Web of Science database. The first part of the analysis presents publication trends, while a semantic analysis of the scientific output highlights the main research directions within the field. For each research direction, emerging terms were identified and used to map the key trends shaping current developments. To fully capture the nuances of the relationships among emerging terms, the identified trends were discussed and contextualized to enhance their understanding. The results provide a comprehensive overview of the evolving dynamics of cybersecurity and user data protection research, and they underscore the dynamic areas of interest driving innovation in this domain.