Digital Government

Since its inception, the Digital Government Track at HICSS has presented innovative research at the vanguard of digital government research and practice. This year is no different, despite our entering a third year of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Once again, the Digital Government Track received more than 75 number of completed research submissions, despite the smaller number of mini-tracks that the Track embraced this year.

Over the years, the Track has sought to maintain a balance between providing a venue for new and emerging topics with those that are mature with well-defined parameters. Typically, the acceptance rate for more mature topical mini-tracks is lower (20-30%), while the acceptance rate for emerging topics is higher (around 50) in order to promote the growth of scholarship in new areas. Overall, the Digital Government Track seeks an acceptance rate of below 50%, which we achieved this year as well.

The high number of submissions and the overall acceptance rate reaffirms the interest in Digital Government, which has been highlighted during the global COVID-19 pandemic when many physical government services ceased, as well as the ranking of the Digital Government Track as a prominent conference outlet in the field. After two years of interacting online, in 2023, we will come together as a community once again. In a very much anticipated in person conference, the Digital Government Track will offer the opportunity to explore cutting edge research through its nine mini-tracks:

• AI in Government;
• Cybersecurity and Privacy in Government;
• Digital Government Theory: Development and Application;
• Digital Government and Business Process Management (BPM);
• Disaster Information, Resilience, for Emergency and Crisis Technologies (DIRECT);
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Digital Government: Narrowing the Divides;
• Emerging Topics in Digital Government;
• Policies and Strategies for Digital Government;
• Smart and Connected Cities and Communities;

The breadth and scope of the topics explored through the mini-tracks is a reflection of the continued growth of Digital Government as a field of study, as well as the evolution of global government engagement with digital technologies. As maintained through the Digital Government Reference Library v. 17.5 (https://faculty.washington.edu/jscholl/dgrl/), there are over 16,500 entries of peer-reviewed publications in the English language. Digital Government research continues to thrive both in numbers and in quality, and the HICSS conference is a reflection of that trajectory.

While the current topics in the Track will maintain continued interest and attract attention, we anticipate that future editions of the Digital Government Track at HICSS will give rise to new topics as the field continues to evolve and grow. We look forward to the continued exploration of established and emerging Digital Government research at the HICSS conference.

Mila Gasco Hernandez
University at Albany, SUNY
mgasco@albany.edu

Christian Schaupp
West Virginia University
Christian.Schaupp@mail.wvu.edu