Library and Information Sciences

Library and Information Sciences

Scientometric Analysis of Digital Ethics in Scopus Database

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Narjes Vara 1
Zahra Namvar 2
Marzieh Goltaji 3
1 Assistant Professor, Evaluation and Resource Development Department, Islamic World Science and Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC), Shiraz, Iran
2 Ph.D. in Knowledge and Information Science, Development Unit, Islamic World Science and Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC), Shiraz, Iran
3 Ph.D. in Knowledge and Information Science, Journals Evaluation and Accreditation Unit, Islamic World Science and Technology Monitoring and Citation Institute (ISC), Shiraz, Iran
10.30481/lis.2024.440902.2137
Abstract
Objective: Considering the role of ethical issues in virtual space, this study has investigated the scientific publications on digital ethics and related fields based on scientometric indicators in Scopus database.
Methodology: This research is an applied and conducted with a scientometric approach.  The study population consists of 755 articles (research or review) on digital ethics that indexed in Scopus database. To construct the dataset of publications on digital ethics, all scientific articles published on digital ethics were collected. To analyze the findings, Vosviewer software was used.
Findings: From 1981 to the end of 2023, 755 articles in the field of digital ethics and related concepts have been indexed in the Scopus database. These articles have been published in 160 journals. The greatest number of articles (52 articles) is in “Ethics and Information Technology” journal, then “Journal of Information Communication and Ethics in Society” and “Philosophy and Technology”, with 30 and 17 articles, respectively, in the second and third positions. The most active author in this field is Luciano Floridi with 29 articles. Also, the most cited article is also dedicated to this person in 2018. Only 16 articles belong to Iranian authors. Also, the most cited article among Iranian authors is belongs to the article titled “The students' experiences of ethics in online systems: A phenomenological study”, written by Mosallanejad, Dehghani and Abdolahi Fard with 10 citations in 2014, and after that the article titled “Assessing the credibility of Web information by university students: findings from a case study in Iran” written by Keshavarz with 5 citations in 2020. The United States and Oxford University are the most active country and organization in the field of digital ethics. The scientific map of this field in the Scopus database consists of 10 clusters and 635 links. These clusters include information ethics, digital ethics and privacy, ethics, artificial intelligence and technology ethics, computer ethics, cyber ethics, algorithms in information systems, information technology and practical ethics.
Conclusion: Nowadays, the topic of ethics has more attention than ever in the virtual space. Findings showed that the emphasis in scientific research in the field of digital ethics such as plagiarism, research ethics, cyber-attack, intellectual property rights are changing towards ethics in technology and computer issues such as digital technology, virtual ethics, data governance, technology emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, technology ethics, data protection, and machine learning.
Keywords
Digital ethics
Scientific output
Scopus database
Scientometrics
Virtual space
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