Research collaboration and knowledge sharing in e-governance

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to introduce a systematic computing and analytical procedure that is applied to the co-author network to identify the temporal evolution and growth of research collaborations in the area of e-governance. The empirical analysis of the temporal co-author network can trace the emerging authors and knowledge bursts over time. Design/methodology/approach The study applied social network theory to trace the author collaboration patterns in the domain of e-governance. Analysis of the co-author network using micro and macro parameters was done to trace the temporal evolution of the author collaborations. Findings E-governance is a multi-disciplinary research domain split over streams of management, politics, information technology and electronics. Hence, research collaborations play a significant role in its advancement. The knowledge sharing between individual authors, institutions and groups through research collaborations, resulting in extensive sharing of data, equipment and research methods, has boosted research activities and development in e-governance. In this paper, the authors systematically analyse the current scenario of research collaborations in the area of e-governance using co-author network to estimate its impact on the advancement of the field. The authors also analysed the temporal evolution of the co-author networks, which show remarkable growth of research collaborations in the domain of e-governance from the year 2000. Research limitations/implications The co-author network analysis is only a proxy measure for the analysis of research collaborations. The names of the authors and the university affiliations used in the article are as retrieved from the research repository of Scopus. The degree, citations and other parameters related with authors have scope only within the environment of the co-author network used in the analysis. The criteria used in the study is limited to the degree of research collaborations and the number of co-authored publications in the giant component of the co-author network. Practical implications Institutions, authors and governments can trace and select suitable topics and choose research groups of co-authors over the world for future research collaborations in e-governance. The knowledge about the emerging and most discussed topics gives an overview of the global research trends of e-governance. Social implications The study identified the evolution of creative collaborations in e-governance in the global perspective. The methodology introduced here is helpful to detect the proficient and productive author collaborations and the spectrum of related e-governance research topics associated with them. As the author collaborations can be mapped to the institutional and country-level collaborations, the information is helpful for researchers, institutions and governments to establish the best collaborations in e-governance research based on the author proficiency, collaboration patterns and research topics as per the requirements. Originality/value The paper introduces a novel research methodology using temporal analysis of co-author network to identify the evolution of research patterns and the associated research topics.

Guest editorial

“…Together the papers included in this special issue offer a comprehensive insight into trends and developments that add to the complex pattern of global transformations specific to the 21st century. These topics are the spearhead of research and policymaking considerations these days (Duan et al , 2019; Melin and Wihlborg, 2018; Bindu et al , 2019), thus confirming the topicality of this collection.…”

Trends and Future Directions in Research on the Protection of Traditional Village Cultural Heritage in Urban Renewal

“…Other subnetworks involve smaller teams with fewer publications. Overall, the connectivity density in the author collaboration network is low, with relatively isolated nodes, indicating that academic collaboration in this field is still developing, characterized by few collaborative relationships and weak efforts [63]. This suggests an "overall dispersion with limited concentration" characteristic, indicating that large-scale collaboration patterns have yet to fully emerge.…”

The evolution of e-government research over two decades: applying bibliometrics and science mapping analysis

“…For Example, Bindu et al (2019b) analyzed the research collaboration in e-governance using the co-author network to assess its influence on the advancement of the field. Their results showed significant growth in research collaborations since 2000.…”