E-Participation as a Research Domain: Analysis of Publication Patterns and Current Tendencies

The present study aims at contributing to a better comprehension of the e-participation literature in three ways and demonstrating possibilities of using software provided for automated processing of information arrays downloaded from bibliographic databases for scientometric analysis of selected research domain. First, descriptive analysis of articles and authors in order to determine areas of expertise which include the concept of e-participation is provided. Secondly, the conceptual structure of research field with usage of bibliometric analysis which allows to create a map of the highly relevant topics is analyzed. Thirdly, future research directions are defined and elaborated. Totally, 1946 Scopus publications published during the period of 1968-2022 are processed. The results allow to conclude that this area of research reached a point of "maturity". Although the number of publications has been growing, it is not at an explosive pace as it was 10-15 years ago.