  In this paper, we present the results of the study on the development of
social network analysis (SNA) discipline and its evolution over time, using the
analysis of bibliographic networks. The dataset consists of articles from the
Web of Science Clarivate Analytics database and those published in the main
journals in the field (70,000+ publications), created by searching for the key
word "social network*." From the collected data, we constructed several
networks (citation and two-mode, linking publications with authors, keywords
and journals). Analyzing the obtained networks, we evaluated the trends in the
field`s growth, noted the most cited works, created a list of authors and
journals with the largest amount of works, and extracted the most often used
keywords in the SNA field. Next, using the Search path count approach, we
extracted the main path, key-route paths and link islands in the citation
network. Based on the probabilistic flow node values, we identified the most
important articles. Our results show that authors from the social sciences, who
were most active through the whole history of the field development,
experienced the "invasion" of physicists from 2000's. However, starting from
the 2010's, a new very active group of animal social network analysis has
emerged.
