Mapping the Intellectual Structure of the Big Data Research in the IS Discipline: A Citation/Co-Citation Analysis

Big data (BD) is one of the emerging topics in the field of information systems. This article utilized citation and co-citation analysis to explore research articles in the field of BD to examine the scientific development in the area. The research data was retrieved from the WOS database from the period between 2005 and June 2016, which consists of 366 articles. In the citation analysis, this article relies on the degree centrality and betweenness centrality for identifying 38 important papers in BD. In the co-citation analysis, a principal component factor analysis of the co-citation matrix is employed for identifying six major research themes: foundations, BD applications, techniques and technologies, challenges, adoption and impacts and literature review. This literature review is one of the first studies to examine the knowledge structure of BD research in the information systems discipline by using evidence-based analysis methods. Recommendations for future research directions in BD are provided based on the analysis and results of this study.