Mapping the Intellectual Territory of Digital Capability in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Review of the Literature, 2002–2026

Abstract

Digital capability has moved from the periphery of higher education (HE) policy to its centre, reshaped by the spread of information and communication technologies, the COVID-19 emergency pivot to online learning, and the sudden emergence of generative artificial intelligence. This article presents a bibliometric review of scholarship on digital capability in HE, understood as an umbrella construct encompassing digital literacy, digital competence, and digital skills. Drawing on a CiteSpace-based analysis of a corpus spanning 2002– 2026, we synthesize four complementary networks: a 439-keyword co-occurrence map, a document co-cita tion structure comprising ten knowledge-base clusters, a sequence of citation bursts across 24 terms, and the co-cited author and institutional landscape. The results show (i) that digital literacy and higher education are the two structural hubs that bind the field together; (ii) that research attention has shifted through three waves—an early Web 2.0 and social media wave, a 2018–2022 information literacy and skills wave, and a post-2021 turn toward human–AI interaction, generative AI, and student engagement; (iii) that the knowl edge base rests on a durable “digital literacies / critical literacy” foundation (2007), while its fastest-grow ing frontier is an AI-literacy cluster (2022, silhouette 0.88); and (iv) that the field is globally distributed but increasingly led by Chinese, Spanish, and Northern European institutions. We argue that the literature is undergoing a reconceptualization, moving from discrete, measurable “skills” toward a broader, critical, and AI-aware “capability.” The article concludes with implications for curriculum design, measurement, equity, and future research.