IS THE DIGITAL ECONOMY AND SOCIETY INDEX RELEVANT FOR THE ACADEMIC RESEARCH?

Abstract

The pandemic context demonstrated the fact that digital technologies had an essential role in overcoming the crisis generated by the novel coronavirus, activities being mostly transferred to the online environment in an accelerated manner, whether humanity was prepared or not for the new "normal" imposed by the measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. The ease or difficulty of implementing digital technologies in everyday activities was related to the existing digital infrastructure and skills in each country. In this sense, the concept of digitization has been given new meanings. The objective of the research is to illustrate to what extent the digital economy and society index (DESI) represents a relevant indicator in academic research, from the perspective of the most frequently approached themes regarding this concept. In the background allows the paper highlights an overview of the baggage of keywords proposed by the authors of the works indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database that allow increasing the degree of understanding of the concept of digitization, from the perspective of the many fundamental aspects highlighted. Another objective of the study is to identify if the interest in academic research on the topic addressed, from a country, is correlated with the level of digitization of the country, i.e., if the country of origin of the authors with the most published works is in the top of the countries with the highest degree of digitization. The results of the undertaken study reflect the increased interest of the academic environment for research on the topic of sustainable development, but the countries of origin of the authors who wrote the most publications about the Digital Economy and Society Index are not at the top of the ranking published by the European Commission for the year 2022.