Digital Government

Since its inception, the Digital Government Track at HICSS has presented innovative research at the vanguard of digital government research and practice. The HICSS 59 Digital Government Track received 101 completed research submissions across ten mini tracks, including a pre-conference doctoral consortium.

Over the years, the Track has sought to balance providing a venue for new and emerging topics with those that are mature and well-defined. Typically, the acceptance rate for more mature topical mini-tracks is lower (~30%), while the acceptance rate for emerging topics is higher (~50%) to promote the growth of scholarship in new areas. Overall, the Digital Government Track seeks an acceptance rate of below 50%, which was also the case this year (47%).

The high number of submissions and the overall acceptance rate reaffirm the growing interest in Digital Government, which was brought to the forefront during the global COVID-19 pandemic and has continued post-pandemic, as many physical government services have transitioned online. In addition, the ranking of the HICSS Digital Government Track has shown to be a prominent conference outlet in the field, offering the opportunity to explore cutting-edge research through its mini-tracks:

• AI in Government
• International and Comparative Digital Government Studies
• e-Democracy, e-Participation and e-Voting
• Disaster Information, Resilience, for Emergency and Crisis Technologies
• Emerging Topics in Digital Government
• Narrowing the Digital Divide: Creating Opportunities and Addressing Barriers
• Design, Implementation, and Management of Digital Government Policies and Strategies
• Cybersecurity and Privacy in Government
• Smart and Connected Cities and Communities
• Theory and Methods in Digital Government

The breadth and scope of the topics explored through the mini-tracks are 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 Version 21.0 https://faculty.washington.edu/jscholl/dgrl/. As of July 30, 2025, the library contains 20,949 references of predominantly English-language, peer-reviewed work in the study domains of digital government, digital governance, and digital democracy. This represents a 2.8% increase from version 20.5 (December 2024) and a 5.1% increase from version 20.0 (June 2024). The past publication period has continued to be another strong one for Digital Government-related publishing, with the addition of 1,017 new peer-reviewed academic references within the past 13 months. Digital Government research continues to thrive in numbers and quality, and the HICSS conference reflects that trajectory.

Mila Gasco Hernandez
University at Albany
mgasco@albany.edu

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