Tracing the Four-Decade Journey of Research in Ethics and Higher Education- A Bibliometric Analysis

Higher education institutions have a significant role in fostering ethical behaviour in students. Ethics in higher education encompasses a wide range of areas, including academic integrity, research ethics, ethical leadership, social responsibility, inclusivity, and sustainable education. The study of research on ethics in higher education shows that considerable work has been done on theory, models, analysis, processes, compliance, etc., in this domain. A look at literature over the past four decades maps how the literature has progressed over the years. In the current study, the researchers have used bibliometric analysis to trace the four-decade journey of research done in ethics in higher education. This research analysed 346 papers published in Scopus-indexed peer-reviewed journals between 1981 to 2023. The bibliometric analysis helped to yield interesting insights into understanding the most referenced articles, journals, countries, institutions, and authors in the ethics and higher education literature. The study also aims at understanding the new research themes in ethics and higher education. Drawing on the result of cluster analysis, the keywords help in defining four broad research themes.