Bibliometric Mapping of Technology Use in Public Services: Intellectual Structure and Thematic Evolution

This study maps the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of research on technology use in public services, a body of work that has so far been scattered across several separate streams. A bibliometric analysis was applied to 102 English-language social science journal articles indexed in Scopus (1997–2026; data retrieved on 20 September 2026), combining the concepts of technology, the public sector, and public services. Publication, citation, source, and country patterns were analyzed descriptively, while the conceptual structure was examined through keyword co-occurrence using VOSviewer's network, overlay, and density visualizations. Publications rose sharply from 2023 onward (54 articles, or 52.9%, appeared in 2023–2026). Citations were highly concentrated, with ten articles accounting for more than half of all citations, and output was dominated by authors affiliated with institutions in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy. The keyword network formed nine clusters around the public sector and public services. Over time, the themes moved away from outsourcing and privatization toward trust, transparency, accountability, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity. Evidence from developing countries, Indonesia included (two articles), remains very limited. The study proposes a research agenda on citizen acceptance, legal and ethical safeguards, and institutional readiness at the local level.