Smart contracts are decentrally anchored scripts on blockchains or similar infrastructures that allow the transparent execution of predefined processes. Using smart contracts, business logic can be automated and assets such as money become programmable, which opens up previously inaccessible application potential. To date, smart contracts control billions in value. This paper analyzes 468 articles on the topic of smart contracts and their 20,188 references, providing a summary and analysis of the current state of research on smart contracts and identifying intellectual structures and emerging trends. Using exploratory factor analysis for co-citation analysis, six different strands of research are identified that concern technical, social, economic and legal disciplines: I) technical foundations, development and open questions of blockchain networks, II) blockchain and smart contracts for the Internet of Things, III) smart contract standardization, verification and security, IV) blockchain and smart contracts for the disruption of existing processes and industries, V) potentials and challenges of smart contracts, and VI) smart contracts and the law. The interrelations between these groups and individual high-impact publications are visualized using social network analysis. A structured overview of the main strands of research concerning smart contracts, their development over time, the relevance of smart contract platforms in research, and conceptual connections between publications and discourses is obtained. Based on the results, starting points for future research are derived, which offer researchers and practitioners a substantial basis for their work on smart contracts.

智能合约是在区块链或类似基础架构上分散锚定的脚本，可透明地执行预定义的流程。使用智能合约，业务逻辑可以实现自动化，货币等资产也可以进行编程，从而开辟了以前无法访问的应用程序潜力。迄今为止，智能合约控制着数十亿美元的价值。本文分析了468篇有关智能合约的文章及其20,188篇参考文献，对智能合约的研究现状进行了总结和分析，并确定了知识结构和新兴趋势。使用探索性因素分析进行​​共引分析，可以确定涉及技术，社会，经济和法律学科的六个不同研究领域：I）技术基础，区块链网络的发展和开放问题，II）物联网的区块链和智能合约，III）智能合约的标准化，验证和安全，IV）破坏现有流程和行业的区块链和智能合约，V）潜力和挑战智能合约，以及VI）智能合约和法律。使用社交网络分析可以直观地看到这些群体与影响力较大的出版物之间的相互关系。结构化地概述了有关智能合约的主要研究领域，它们随着时间的发展，智能合约平台在研究中的相关性以及出版物和论述之间的概念联系。根据结果​​得出未来研究的起点，