Fake News Mapping the Fakeness through Scholarly Output Lenses

Sheikh Shueb; Huma Shafiq; Sumeer Gul; Saimah Bashir; Farzana Gulzar

doi:10.14429/djlit.41.4.17139

Sheikh Shueb Islamic University of Science & Technology (IUST), Awantipora - 192 122, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4323-4363
Huma Shafiq Government Degree College, Magam - 193 401, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1181-630X
Sumeer Gul University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190 006, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0258-1182
Saimah Bashir University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190 006, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9731-6794
Farzana Gulzar University of Kashmir, Srinagar - 190 006, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0318-2909

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14429/djlit.41.4.17139

Keywords: Fake news, Fake news in scholarly communication, Research output, Bibliometrics, Misinformation

Abstract

The study attempts to map the trends across the scholarly publications published in the field of “Fake News.” Data were collected from one of the extensive indexing/abstracting services, Web of Science, the top indexing/abstracting service and a proprietary of Clarivate Analytics. The study reveals that the research on “Fake News” is mainly published as “articles” in English. Research on “Fake News” in terms of publication count and citation score shows a steady increase. “Lecture Notes in Computer Science,” “Professional De La Informacion,” and “New Media Society” stay as the prioritised platforms for researchers to publish their research. “Computer Science,” “Communication,” “Engineering,” “Information Science and Library Science,” and “Government Law” are the prioritised research domains in which research on “Fake News” stays a high priority. The highest number of articles are published from the U.S.A. The U.S.A., England, and Germany have the highest collaboration (links) with other countries, and the USA-China collaboration ranks first. Arizona State University is the top-ranked institute with the highest number of articles published on “Fake News,” and “Pennycook G” stays the most productive author. Six hundred ninety funding agencies support the funded research papers with The National Science Foundation N.S.F., U.S.A. as the top sponsor.