Information and Knowledge Management Publication Trends in Preparing Society for the 4IR

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a term created by Klaus Schwab and defines a world where individuals move between digital domains and offline reality with the usage of connected technology to assist and manage their lives. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the outcome of advanced technology, globalization of the economy, expansion of education, legislation, tradition and human relations. Information and Knowledge Management as a discipline could assist in equipping the society with the necessary information that would potentially stimulate growth and innovation. This will help communicate unfamiliar prospects about the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Having a well-informed society can increase the chances of a society that is capable of living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. Therefore, this research study aimed at exploring the concepts, ideas and publications in the field of Information and Knowledge Management in preparing for a society that will prosper in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This research study identified publication trends from the Information Processing and Management Journal, the Information Science Journal and the Knowledge Development Journal. The title, abstracts and keywords of articles found in the journals which were related to the Information and Knowledge Management concepts were collected. Qualitative content analysis with a focus on coding was used to analyze the data. This was to prove that Information and Knowledge Management as a discipline can play a role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution by supporting society and organizations. The benefits of the discipline are closely linked to those of the imminent industrial revolution. The most published information and knowledge management concepts in the Information Processing and Management Journal was social media literacy and data science, the most published concepts in the Information Science Journal was data science and digital information literacy and the most published concepts in the Knowledge Development Journal was Social Media Literacy and Information Literacy. Furthermore, the collected data revealed that Information and Knowledge Management is an innovative yet developing discipline and should be one of the educational tools focused on assisting the user in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.