Bibliometric analysis and scientific mapping of research trends on ‘digital divide’

Purpose With the aid of bibliometric analysis, this study aims to show the state-of-the-art of research on the digital divide and identifies new areas for further investigation. Design/methodology/approach Performance analysis and science mapping were used in the study to analyse a sample of 3,571 studies that were published between 2018 and 2022. The “Title-Keyword-Abstract” search option was used to collect the anticipated publications data from the Scopus database. The gathered data were analysed using the common bibliometric indices to evaluate the research landscape. The science mapping tactics made use of the VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software. Findings The performance and science mapping analysis shows that recent research on the digital divide has not been sufficiently exposed and examined. The analysis discovered emerging topics, prolific authors and nations, affiliations, a network of collaboration among authors, countries and institutions, bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence. Originality/value This work presents a state-of-the-art that has significant theoretical and practical ramifications for the existing digital divide literature. The methodologies and database used in the current study are more extensive.