<![CDATA[Background: Community is one of the most relevant forms of social relations in examining the dynamics of interaction between individuals in the contemporary era. The selection of community as the focus is based on its alignment with the basic assumptions of Social Exchange Theory (SET), which views social exchange relationships as considering the aspects of rewards and costs in reciprocal interactions that are also accompanied by the building of trust and carried out voluntarily. From the perspective of communication science, this theory is able to explain how individuals build, maintain, and develop relationships in various forms of communities, both offline and digital. Purpose: This study aims to review the development of academic studies on the use of SET, especially from the community perspective. Methods: This study employs bibliometric analysis using international publication data indexed in Scopus for the period 2015 to 2025. A total of 400 articles were analyzed with the assistance of VOSviewer software to visualize trends, authors, citations, and research opportunities. Results: Publications grew significantly, peaking at 69 articles in 2025. Keyword mapping revealed three clusters: tourism and residents’ attitudes, digital communities and motivation, and social capital and trust. Conclusion: SET has emerged as a fundamental theoretical framework for explaining communication processes, participation, collaboration, and relationship building within communities. Tourism is the most heavily studied topic related to SET. Implications: On a theoretical level, this study establishes SET as a communication theory of reciprocal message and meaning exchange in communities. On a practical level, this study creates a research map indicating areas that have not been adequately explored, such as community empowerment, ecotourism, online health communities and platform-based digital communities.]]>
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