Trends of e-government research: contextualization and research opportunities

Abstract

E-Government is a broad research field in which researchers are currently involved in a range of different research projects. Our purpose in this paper is to assist researchers in the development and direction of future analyses, identifying trends in terms of research and the methodology used. Universities and departments that make the main scientific contributions are identified, in order to locate and contextualize the research carried out into e-Government and to enhance intercommunication among researchers and thus knowledge in this field. To achieve this goal, we examined periodical publications listed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in the fields of Public Administration and Information Science, during the period 2000-2009. Knowledge gaps and research opportunities have been derived, highlighting the need to use quantitative methodologies and to identify key factors to promote a theoretical framework to enhance the efficient implementation of e-Government, as well as identification the main universities where the researchers can complete their doctoral academic training.