Mapping Research on AI Ethics and Human Rights: A Bibliometric Study with a TCCM-Based Agenda

<ns3:p>Background The fast-paced acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in various sectors of society, such as health, the judiciary, and education, has had several socio-ethical, legal, and human rights consequences. While AI technologies allow for more efficiency and specialization in decision-making processes, the use of such technologies in very sensitive spheres of social life brings with it great potential dangers, such as bias, discrimination, and violation of privacy. Methods The analysis was performed using Biblioshiny, which is the web interface of the Bibliometric R-package and VOSviewer, to ascertain trends in publication rates, citation impact, keyword development, concentration of journals, institutional affiliations, and inter-country contributions. A co-word and cluster analysis was also performed to show the current dominant and emerging themes of the literature and the thematic evolution from 2018 to 2025. The (theo–context–characteristics–methodology TCCM () framework was applied to analyze the theoretical, contextual, characteristic, and methodological gaps in the literature. Results Most of the heavier hits and influential research are found in only a small number of journals and institutions, mainly located in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. There is a predominance of the themes of AI ethics, governance, and data protection. New themes, such as AI governance and algorithmic accountability, have become apparent in recent years. Conclusions This study contributes to the research in the area in that it provides a comprehensive overview of the developments in AI ethics and human rights and also notes the major gaps in this area. A future agenda for research using the TCCM framework is presented, whereby a call is made for the integration of formal ethical theories into the sphere, a move to empirical methodologies, and enhancement of the geographic and sectoral spread of research.</ns3:p>