Crisis Communication Research: A Scientometric Perspective

ABSTRACT This scientometric analysis maps the thematic and intellectual structure of crisis communication research. Drawing on document co‐citation and keyword co‐occurrence analyses of 2529 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (1980–2025), the study reveals the field's evolution, structural patterns, and emerging trends. The findings indicate a theoretically driven and structurally integrated field, with social media and situational crisis communication theory serving as central organizing clusters that link key themes, including crisis types, organizational reputation, internal communication, pandemics, natural disasters, and risk communication. The field has expanded methodologically and geographically, increasingly, incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives, public health‐oriented research, non‐Western digital platforms, and computational approaches to address complex and evolving crisis contexts. Although interdisciplinary influences from psychology, education, health, social, and medical sciences are evident, the findings indicate that public relations scholarship continues to provide the primary framework through which crisis communication research evolves and reproduces itself. Moreover, the crisis communication literature is expanding rapidly and is expected to grow further beyond 2025, with major contributions continuing to originate from the field of public relations. Adopting a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective, this study highlights the growing theoretical coherence and interdisciplinary integration of crisis communication research by systematically mapping its intellectual structure.