Abstract:

The security domain is a multi-disciplinary field of study that in its current state exist across a diverse and wide ranging set of academic departments and disciplines. As such, emerging security research efforts are often shaped by their respective supporting departments, and in particular driven by department-centric research methodologies. While this approach is both practical and in alignment with existing pedagogy, it may limit the synergies of thought created when disparate disciplines are brought together to fulfill a societal function such as security. In this paper, we investigate PhD theses for 2009-2014 where the research title contains “security” or “secure” in an effort to identify the prevailing methodologies used by emerging researchers. From this data set, we organize the works into a taxonomy and present our findings. We then offer suggestions on how these results may be used as a foundation in creating dedicated departments inclusive of academic units, research funding opportunities and dedicated publishing outlets.

Keywords:

Security, domain, multi-disciplinary, research, academic departments, methodologies.