The Status of e-Government Research from a Bibliometric Aspect

Abstract

The e-government as an ever-growing dimension of public administration gets more and more attention worldwide [10]. It is considered an essential tool nowadays to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness while providing better services to citizens. The study aims to investigate the egovernance research advancements and trends from the past 10 years.

The empirical research is based on bibliometric data and defines the most active affiliations, top resource titles, the leading topic clusters, and research tracks from various angles. Data are collected restricted to the articles related to the “e-government” and “law or legislation” keywords between 2010 and 2019 November (a total of 513 articles). The data source is the Scopus citation database.

Findings show a fragmented picture of the research field, dominated by computer science and in alignment with this, by conference proceedings. Keyword co-occurrence analysis shows 14 different modules classified into a 3-dimension model based on research foci on the publications. These are managerial, political, and legal aspects. While based on density the leading keywords are interoperability, public administration, and social media. The latest trends show the emergence of natural language processing and smart city issues.

Our research emphasizes the trends of e-government research as a leading research field in public administration studies. It is important to note, however, that the topic is rather multidisciplinary. It is important to see the correlations between the academic basic research activities and countries' practical e-government implications.