Purpose This study aims to examine how digital equity has been framed in library and information science (LIS) research from 2001–2025 by mapping publication trends, identifying influential authors and journals and analyzing thematic organization to clarify areas of concentration and underdevelopment in the literature. Design/methodology/approach A bibliometric analysis was conducted to map digital equity research in LIS, with screening guided by the Arksey and O’Malley framework and reported using PRISMA-ScR guidance. A Scopus search retrieved journal and review articles published from 2001–2025, yielding 388 included documents. Bibliometric analyses were performed in VOSviewer to identify influential publications, leading contributors and thematic clusters. Findings LIS research on digital equity shows sustained growth, with scholarly output and citation prominence concentrated in a limited set of countries, authors and journals. Citation mapping indicates a broad cited literature with a smaller, more connected core. Author keyword co-occurrence analysis identified six thematic clusters, including public libraries and digital inclusion, academic libraries and digital resource management and ICT infrastructure and the digital divide. Overall, the field is strongly oriented toward access and service response, while analyses focused on outcomes, structure and justice appear less developed in the mapped corpus. Originality/value This study provides an LIS-specific bibliometric map of digital equity scholarship, based on a screened Scopus-indexed corpus, clarifying the field’s growth, concentration patterns, citation structures and thematic organization to inform future research, practice and policy discussions on digital equity in LIS.
Torres et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: