Ghazali Shafie Graduate School of Government
Universiti Utara Malaysia
06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah, MALAYSIA.
Ghazali Shafie Graduate School of Government
Universiti Utara Malaysia
06010 UUM Sintok, Kedah, MALAYSIA.
Abstract
This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 1,278 publications on good governance in the public sector indexed in Scopus between 2018 and 2023. The volume of research increased from 132 documents in 2018 to 275 in 2023, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of approximately 16.4%, indicating growing academic and policy interest in governance-related issues. Journal articles comprised the majority (88.97%), followed by book chapters (5.01%) and reviews (3.60%). The leading subject area was Business, Management, and Accounting (41.47%), followed by Social Sciences (8.84%) and Economics (2.97%). Sustainability (Switzerland) emerged as the top journal with 91 publications and 1,422 citations, while the most cited paper garnered 615 citations, indicating high scholarly influence. Key contributing authors included B. Cuadrado-Ballesteros and G. Grossi, with Universiti Teknologi Mara and the University of Granada identified as the most productive institutions. The United Kingdom, United States, and Australia were the leading contributing countries. Overall, the dataset received 14,939 citations, with an h-index of 50 and g-index of 80, reflecting a strong academic footprint. The most prominent research themes were accountability (28.89%), transparency (19.87%), public sector (17.39%), good governance (12.45%), and governance (6.48%), followed by corruption (4.73%), local government (2.91%), sustainability (2.69%), public administration (2.40%), and e-government (2.18%). These findings highlight a concentrated focus on institutional performance, transparency, and integrity, offering theoretical contributions to governance frameworks and practical insights for policymakers aiming to improve public sector effectiveness and reduce systemic inefficiencies.