Trending Now

Citation

Meijer A & Webster W (2025) Trending Now. Information Polity, 30 (3), pp. 163-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/15701255251368713

Abstract
First paragraph: It is often argued that technology evolves rapidly, and academic research is ‘behind the curve’, because by the time the research has been undertaken, verified and published, it is out of date. This is especially the case for journals that follow a robust per review process. Nevertheless, researchers are always exploring the latest trends, and embedding them in the concepts and theories of academic thought. As time passes, it is possible to look back over editions of a journal, like Information Polity, to see how trends have emerged. Often these trends involve subtle discourse adjustments driven by commercial and policy interests. So, in recent years we have seen the rise in the number of papers submitted on the topics of ‘smart cities’, ‘big data’, ‘open data’ and most recently ‘AI’. Of course, to make the journal relevant to contemporary issues we are keen to publish manuscripts on these topics, and often do so via the vehicle of special issues. Whilst these trending topics grab attention they sometimes do so at the expense of more mainstream less glamorous but extremely important studies – and Information Polity will always be a home for robust eGovernance research on any relevant topic.

Journal
Information Polity: Volume 30, Issue 3