Hotspots and frontiers in global digital literacy: A bibliometric analysis (2000-2023)

This article aims to explore the hotspots and frontiers in global digital literacy research to help global digital literacy researchers identify potential collaborators and research topics.

A total of 5252 literatures were retrieved from the web of science core collection database (SSCI and SCI-E). A bibliometric analysis is conducted to study the publications, countries, collaborations, institutions, authors, hotspots and frontiers in global digital literacy research. Softwares of CiteSpace, VOSviewer and bibliometric online analysis platform are used together for visualization.

USA, UK, Australia, and China are the main forces with close cooperation in digital literacy research, but international cooperation needs to strengthen. The most prominent institutions and authors in global digital literacy research are University of Sydney, City University London, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, New Media & Society, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Okan Orkan, etc. The frontiers mainly focus on #0 digital literacy, #1 health literacy, #2 media literacies, #3 emergent literacy, #4 service learning, and #5digital libraries. Among them, the S value of #2 with 72 papers is 0.953, indicating a tendency to generate new topics. Digital literacy has great potential in improving digital health literacy, electronic health literacy, media literacy, especially in service learning and digital library construction. Interdisciplinary international cooperation should be the trend of digital research in the future.

This study is the first multi-technology and multidimensional visualization of global digital literacy literatures, provides a comprehensive overview of global cooperation and research trends in digital literacy, outlines the definition and development of digital literacy, and provides hotspots and frontiers for global digital literacy researchers identifying potential collaborators and topics.