Internet Addiction in the Web of Science Database: A Review of the Literature with Scientific Mapping

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Review Internet Addiction in the Web of Science Database: A Review of the Literature with Scientific Mapping Antonio-JoséMoreno-Guerrero , Gerardo Gómez-García , Jesús López-Belmonte and Carmen Rodríguez-Jiménez * Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain; [email protected] (A.-J.M.-G.); [email protected] (G.G.-G.); [email protected] (J.L.-B.) *Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 27 February 2020; Accepted: 15 April 2020; Published: 16 April 2020   Abstract: Information and communication technologies (ICT) is a major element of today’s society with great potential that can offer both advantages and disadvantages. Addiction to the Internet and social networks is a growing problem in all age groups. Education is the context in which to work and train in the correct use of these media. The objective of the study focuses on knowing the scientific production and the performance of the concepts “addiction” and “internet” (ADIN). A bibliometric methodology complemented with the scientific mapping technique was followed. Different processes related to the quantification, analysis, evaluation, and estimation of scientific documents were carried out. The literature was analyzed by specific programs such as SciMAT, Analyze Results, and Creation Citation Report. The unit of analysis was specified in 5644 scientific publications extracted from Web of Science (WoS), belonging to the period of years between 1996 and 2019. The results showed that the evolution in the study of the addiction to the Internet is constant and continuous, with articles in English being the most used means to present the information on the part of the investigators. In addition, the subject of study was based on time, given that the coincidence of key words between the periods analyzed was high. In conclusion, the importance of promoting healthy living habits that include responsible use of the Internet are discussed. Keywords: scientific production; bibliometric analysis; scientific mapping; addiction; internet; Web of Science 1. Introduction Today’s society is increasingly focused on technology and therefore people are progressively more dependent on it, particularly with regards to the Internet [ 1 , 2 ]. Mobile phones and different technological devices have made the world of video games and online shopping more accessible to everyone, making markets even more desirable and broad than before [3]. The Internet and the different social networks have become popular instruments that are currently used to communicate and exchange information, among the most outstanding actions [ 4 ]. The way in which people interact with each other, entertain themselves, and consume through the media has been modified through the Internet [ 5 ]. However, as more people connect to multimedia devices to share information and make use of the possibilities they are offered, cases of media addiction are growing at a dangerous pace [ 6 , 7 ]. These addictions have grown significantly over the last decade [ 8 ], surpassing other types of addictions. There is a great deal of scientific evidence showing how there is a serious risk associated with excessive use of the Internet and everything that derives from it [ 9 ], where, in addition, personal characteristics, gender, socio-cultural differences [ 10 ], and biological factors could play an important Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753; doi:10.3390/ijerph17082753 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 2 of 16 role in the appearance of an addiction to these media. The literature reveals an association between the Internet and social networks and an increase in so-called techno-stress [11–13]. The constant use of the Internet and social networks leads to an addiction and obsession, which results in negative behavior [ 14 ]. The consequences of these habits regarding the excessive use of different smart devices and the Internet can affect both the physical and mental health of users [ 15 ]. Issues such as anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, and aggressive behavior can also result or be increased from uncontrolled use [ 16 ]. Those with internet addiction have higher levels of depression, anxiety, and impulsivity than those without such an addiction [9]. Numerous studies address internet and smartphone addiction, regardless of the age of those suffering from it [ 17 ] or even the field in which they are trained or work [ 18 ]. In addition, the literature contains relevant research that addresses this type of addiction and its relationship to the educational setting [ 8 , 19 ]. Technology, the Internet, and the impact of the digital world have a great influence on the student body and the development of their personality [20] and health [21]. At present, students, regardless of their educational stage, are one of the groups most closely related to everything related to ICT and its use for different purposes, such as socialization or proper academic development [ 22 ]. Experts on the field state that those students who use the Internet for purposes that go beyond simple socialization through the different social networks and video games have a better level with regard to problems related to the use of this technology [ 23 ]. The exclusive use of these media for playful or socializing purposes without an educational perspective or previous training in the correct use and handling can lead to problems such as sexting [ 24 ], cyberbullying [ 25 ], or video game addiction [ 26 ]. The consequences derived from these phenomena can affect the academic, social, and emotional spheres. In this respect, from the educational field, mechanisms of prevention and action should be established in the face of these new existing trends. Therefore, it is necessary to educate in terms of the correct handling of the devices at a technical level, but also at a regulatory level, where the self-regulation of certain behaviors towards these devices is promoted, always extracting the maximum potential for all the areas of the life of the students, including their academic life [ 27 ]. The objective from the educational point of view should be to form digitally competent citizens who have positively developed their ethical, literacy, participatory, and critical aspects towards technology and the use of the Internet [28,29]. In recent times, there have been constant publications that analyze ICT, as well as the Internet and its relationship with education [ 30 , 31 ], as the tendency of these topics is to increase and acquire more relevance in terms of research. On the other hand, studies approached from bibliometrics, such as the one presented in this paper, are in recent times a constant that addresses a multitude of topics of incidence, such as medical research [32], virtual reality [33,34], or the area of sports [35]. 2. Justification of Study In the research presented, the concepts “addiction” and “internet” (ADIN) are analyzed in the impact scientific literature collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database. Web of Science is an online platform containing databases of bibliographic information and information analysis resources that allow the evaluation and analysis of research performance, especially in the field of social sciences. In addition, it presents a series of analysis tools that allow specific and concrete searches to be carried out [ 36 ]. This study acquires a bibliometric nature with the purpose of analyzing the publications by means of a scientific mapping developed as a result of various bibliometric indicators and a dynamic and structural evolution of the aforementioned terms. To carry out and follow a study model validated by experts in this field of research, other impact investigations taken from the Journal Citation Reports were taken as a reference (JCR) [36,37]. This study focused on the evaluation of the trajectory and evolution of the mentioned concepts of the main WoS collection. Initially, a search was carried out in such a database to know the status of the terms issue and, in addition, to check if there were any studies of similar characteristics to the one Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 3 of 16 presented in this work. After the search phase, no publication was found that analyzed both terms with a scientific mapping, and thus this study acquired an exploratory nuance about the state of the art in impact literature. Therefore, this study helps to increase the findings and reduce the gap found in the literature concerning the relationship between “addiction” and “internet”. Therefore, the results obtained will acquire a relevant value as they will contribute to the advancement of science, in addition to serving as a basis for successive research. 3. Materials and Methods 3.1. Research Objectives The general objective of this study was to analyze the scientific literature on ADIN indexed in the WoS database. This general objective is articulated in the following specific objectives: •To determine the performance of publications on ADIN in WoS. •To decree the scientific evolution of ADIN in WoS. •To find out the most incident issues about ADIN in WoS. •To identify the most influential authors in ADIN in WoS. The research questions posed are •RQ1: What is the performance of ADIN publications in WoS? •RQ2: What is the scientific evolution of ADIN in WoS? •RQ3: What are the most frequent problems of ADIN in WoS? •Q4: Who are the most influential authors of ADIN in WoS? 3.2. Research Design The research methodology adopted in this study to achieve the proposed objectives was bibliometry. This choice is justified in the scientometric potentialities linked to the actions of searching, recording, analyzing, and predicting scientific literature [ 38 ]. Similarly, the guidance and considerations of experts in this type of study were followed [39]. Specifically, this work was based on the analysis of co-words [ 40 ] and various bibliometric indicators such as the h-index, taken as a reference, in addition to other indices (g, hg, q2) [ 41 ]. This gave rise to the creation of node maps whose interpretation determined the performance and position of conceptual subdomains alluding to ADIN. In addition, the analytical treatment delimited the thematic development of these concepts in WoS [ 42 ]. From this database, we used the complete record in order to obtain as much information as possible, in order to have the most relevant data to perform the co-word analysis [43]. 3.3. Procedure and Data Analysis This investigation was carried out following various actions that specified the following procedures: (a) selection of the database (WoS), (b) determination of the keywords (“addiction” and “internet”) after consultation in specialized thesauri (ERIC and UNESCO) and in the information provided in the Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and (c) construction of a precise search equation to obtain significant results (“addiction*” [TOPIC] AND “internet” [TOPIC]) and report documents containing both terms in different metadata (title, abstract, and keywords). The first search action compiled a scientific volume of 5776 publications. In addition, the entire report was analyzed to eliminate repeated documents, those belonging to the year 2020 and the poorly indexed ones. After this, an analysis unit of 5644 publications remained, as a result of the configuration of various production indicators with their respective inclusion criteria (Table 1). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 4 of 16 Table 1. Production indicators and inclusion criteria. Indicators Criteria Year of publication All production except 2020 Language x ≥50 Publication area x ≥300 Type of documents x ≥300 Organizations x ≥70 Authors x ≥60 Sources of origin x ≥100 Countries x ≥400 Citation The four most cited documents To improve the understanding and visualization of the different actions carried out, the following flow chart was established following the protocols of the PRISMA-P matrix (Figure 1). Figure 1. Flowchart according to the PRISMA Declaration. The documents obtained were analyzed with various programs (Analyze Results, Creation Citation Report, and SciMAT). The first two tools are provided by WoS and were used to obtain data concerning the year, authorship, country, type of document, institution, language, means of publication, and most cited documents. For the structural and dynamic development of a longitudinal nature of the scientific volume, SciMAT was used, under the considerations of the experts [44]. With SciMAT, a co-word analysis of the topics was carried out through the following processes: • Recognition: In this process, various actions were carried out. The keywords of the literature obtained were analyzed (n=10,555). A map of co-occurrence nodes was generated. A standardized network of co-words was developed. The most significant keywords were detected (n=9842), and the themes and concepts with greater predominance were represented with a clustering algorithm. • Reproduction: In this process, a strategic diagram and a thematic network based on the principles of centrality and density were prepared. In the generated graphs, four regions can be seen: (1) top right (motor themes and highlights), (2) upper left (rooted and isolated themes); (3) lower left (themes to disappear or project), and (4) lower right (underdeveloped and transversal themes). • Determination: In this process, the evolution of the nodes in certain periods or intervals of time was analyzed. In particular, four periods were defined (P 1 =1996-2010; P 2 =2011-2014; P 3 =2015-2017; P 4 =2018-2019), except in the authorship that one that covered the entire documentary volume Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 5 of 16 was established (P X =1996-2019). The number of matching keywords determined the strength of association between the configured periods. • Performance: In this process, a set of production indicators associated with inclusion criteria that determine the scientific works that become part of the study were delimited (Table 2). Table 2. Production indicators and inclusion criteria. Configuration Values Analysis unit Keywords authors, keywords WoS Frequency threshold Keywords: P1=(5), P2=(7), P3=(7), P4=(7) Authors: PX=(10) Network type Co-occurrence Co-occurrence union value threshold Keywords: P1=(2), P2=(4), P3=(5), P4=(5) Authors: PX=(6) Normalization measure Equivalence index Clustering algorithm Maximum size: 9; minimum size: 3 Evolutionary measure Jaccard index Overlapping measure Inclusion rate 4. Results 4.1. Performance and Scientific Production The evolution of the 5644 documents in the scientific production on ADIN has been constant and continuous over time, showing an exponential growth from its beginnings until the year 2019 (Figure 2). In this sense, and according to the Price law about growth of scientific information, visualization of the distribution of publications on internet addiction doubled in its development 10 years after its first publication. At present, productivity on the subject is in a phase of linear growth. Figure 2. Evolution of scientific production of the keywords “addiction” and “internet” (ADIN) in the Web of Science (WoS). The language chosen by the various authors for the presentation of the academic results was English (Table 3). Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 6 of 16 Table 3. Scientific language used in ADIN. Language n English 5265 Spanish 119 German 95 French 56 Russian 53 The main area of knowledge in ADIN studies is psychiatry, distanced considerably from other areas of knowledge (Table 4). Table 4. Research areas. Research Area n Psychiatry 1649 Psychology (multidisciplinary) 801 Substance abuse 678 Psychology (clinical) 522 Psychology (experimental) 374 Education educational research 313 The type of document mainly used by the various scientists are articles (Table 5). Table 5. Document types. Document Types n Article 4467 Meeting abstract 383 Proceedings paper 347 Review 320 Nottingham Trent University is the leading organization in ADIN studies (Table 6). Table 6. Institutions. Institution n Nottingham Trent University 242 Seoul National University (SNU) 107 Catholic University of Korea 105 Yale University 98 Kaohsiung Medical University 87 Chung Ho Memorial Hospital 76 Johannes Gutenberg Univesrity of Mainz 72 The most prolific author is Griffinths, M.D., with considerable scientific output on ADIN (Table 7). Table 7. Authors. Authors n Griffinths, M.D. 183 Kim, D.J. 72 Ko, C.H. 67 Yen, C.F. 66 Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 7 of 16 Table 7. Cont. Authors n Potenza, M.N. 65 Billieux, J. 63 Brand, M. 60 Wolfling, K. 60 The main source of presentation of studies on ADIN are, with similar productions, Computers in Human Behavior and the Journal of Behavioral Addictions (Table 8). Table 8. Source titles. Source Titles n Computers in Human Behavior 356 Journal of Behavioral Addictions 331 Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking 168 Addictive Behaviors 105 International Journal of Mental Health Addiction 105 The country with the greatest interest in production on ADIN is the United States (Table 9). Table 9. Countries. Country n United States 1263 China 773 England 511 South Korea 469 Turkey 406 Germany 405 The reference author for the scientific community in relation to the subject of ADIN, in terms of number of citations, is Davis (2001), followed at a short distance by Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) and Block (2008) (Table 10). Table 10. Most cited articles and main conclusions. Reference Citations Main Conclusion [45] 881 The model implies a more important role of cognitions in pathological internet use (PIU), and describes the means by which PIU is both developed and maintained. Furthermore, it provides a framework for the development of cognitive-behavioral interventions for PIU. [46] 593 Pathological users, for pathological internet use (PIU), scored significantly higher on the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and were socially disinhibited online. [47] 579 This document refers to how the DSM-IV considers internet addiction. [48] 535 Among the findings are the urgent need to develop research on best practices for treating pain in adolescents, as well as the development of prevention strategies to reduce diversion and abuse. 4.2. Structural and Thematic Development The evolution of keywords shows information about the number of keywords in each of the established time intervals, the number of matching keywords between the periods, and the number of keywords leaving and entering a certain period with respect to another. The studies on ADIN, taking Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 8 of 16 into account the evolution of keywords in scientific production, mark a settled and consolidated line of research, given that the level of coincidence between periods was between 40% and 50% (Figure 3). Figure 3. Continuity of keywords between contiguous intervals. The academic performance in the established periods offers the subjects with the greatest bibliometric indicators, using the h-index as the main reference, and completing this information with the g-index, hg-index and q2-index, in addition to the number of citations. On the subject of ADIN, the subjects with the highest bibliometric indicators varied between periods. In the first time period (1996–2010), the topic with the highest bibliometric indicator was “addiction”; in the second time period (2011–2014) it was “prevalence”; in the third time period (2015–2017) it was “depression” and “addiction”; and in the last time period (2018–2019) it was “adolescents”. This shows changes in the interests of researchers in this field of study. We also observed the changes between periods of the topics of greatest interest to researchers, showing the main lines of research in each of the established time intervals (Table 11). Table 11. Thematic performance. Interval 1996–2010 Denomination Works Index h Index g Index hg Index q2Citations Health-care 12 8 10 8.94 13.86 210 Addiction 238 76 130 99.4 108.19 18,177 Impulse-control-disorder 13 11 12 11.46 25.48 1203 Prevalence 62 37 61 47.51 65.8 5423 Symptoms 20 15 20 17.32 48.68 2216 Computer-games 13 11 11 11 29.1 1328 Sensation-seeking 15 14 14 14 31.3 1547 Technology 22 12 20 15.49 35.16 2060 Online 42 26 38 31.43 43.86 3061 Students 17 13 17 14.87 24.45 848 Intervention 11 8 10 8.94 22.09 523 Scale 21 17 19 17.97 31.4 1488 Alcohol-use 5 5 5 5 10.72 491 Video-games 6 6 6 6 21.77 489 Support 6 6 6 6 21.21 591 Model 5 4 5 4.47 25.14 611 Risk 4 4 4 4 21.82 466 Interval 2011–2014 Denomination Works Index h Index g Index hg Index q2Citations Prevalence 519 69 105 85.12 83.89 19,238 College-students 95 39 71 52.62 54.44 5256 Children 44 23 37 29.17 33.57 1384 Behavior 115 38 61 48.15 54.79 4168 Loneliness 81 30 56 40.99 46.8 3339 Alcohol 30 17 30 22.58 28.57 1026 Motivations 28 20 27 23.24 36.06 2048 Gender 27 13 23 17.29 19.42 596 Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 9 of 16 Table 11. Cont. Interval 2011–2014 Denomination Works Index h Index g Index hg Index q2Citations FMRI 15 13 14 13.49 28.62 870 Treatment 26 17 25 20.62 29.15 1038 Validation 16 13 16 14.42 22.8 681 Health 15 10 15 12.25 15.81 228 Pornography 12 10 12 10.95 17.03 406 TDAH 8 7 8 7.48 12.69 481 DSM-5 18 11 17 13.67 26.12 759 Play 10 8 9 8.49 14.7 296 Computer-use 20 15 19 16.88 24.49 724 Anterior-cingulate-cortex 5 5 5 5 16.28 414 Aggression 7 7 7 7 20.32 579 Interval 2015–2017 Denomination Works Index h Index g Index hg Index q2Citations Funcional-connectivity 54 21 29 24.68 25.51 998 Depression 571 42 63 51.44 51.44 8642 Addiction 680 42 63 51.44 51.03 9259 Self-esteem 108 22 33 26.94 27.75 1492 Decision-making 35 17 29 22.2 22.58 866 DSM-5 73 21 38 28.25 29.7 1627 Smartphone-addiction 44 17 26 24.74 29.44 1314 Validation 85 16 25 20 21.54 937 Substance-use 52 15 26 19.75 21.21 821 Children 53 15 24 18.97 18.57 763 Facebook 44 11 15 12.85 12.85 331 Students 45 15 22 18.17 18.97 596 Model 47 13 23 17.29 18.73 605 Internet-pornography 43 13 26 18.38 17.66 736 Play 19 11 16 13.27 16.58 361 Smoking 15 6 13 8.83 12.73 179 Technology 10 8 10 8.94 13.56 244 Computer-games 12 6 9 7.35 11.22 126 Substance-use-disorders 8 6 7 6.48 10.39 207 Gaming-disorder 9 5 7 5.92 7.07 68 Interval 2018–2019 Denomination Works Index h Index g Index hg Index q2Citations Adolescents 860 17 22 19.34 19.34 2433 Internet-pornography 48 8 13 10.2 11.66 231 Mobile-phone 66 8 14 10.58 12.33 262 Self-esteem 138 11 17 13.97 15.56 544 Facebook 73 7 8 7.48 7.94 200 Impulsivity 68 9 11 9.95 9.95 229 Video-games 82 6 10 7.75 8.49 180 Validation 74 7 9 7.94 7.94 177 Children 112 8 10 8.94 9.8 263 Problematic-internet-use 119 10 13 11.4 11.83 399 University-students 45 8 13 10.2 10.95 222 Prefrontal-cortex 20 5 7 5.92 6.71 60 Internet-use 25 5 7 5.92 7.42 83 Life 16 4 7 5.29 6.93 55 Cue-reactivity 7 3 4 3.46 3.46 20 International-consensus 12 5 7 5.92 6.71 59 Stress 12 3 5 3.87 3.46 33 Risk 16 3 4 3.46 4.58 29 Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020,17, 2753 16 of 16 41. Cobo, M.J.; L ó pez, A.G.; Herrera, E.; Herrera, F. Science mapping software tools: Review, analysis, and cooperative study among tools. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 2011,62, 1382–1402. [CrossRef] 42. L ó pez-Robles, J.R.; Otegi-Olaso, J.R.; Porto, I.; Cobo, M.J. 30 years of intelligence models in management and business: A bibliometric review. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 2019,48, 22–38. [CrossRef] 43. Belli, S.; Balt á , J. Stocktaking scientific publication on bi-regional collaboration between Europe 28 and Latin America and the Caribbean. Scientometrics 2019,121, 1447–1480. [CrossRef] 44. Montero-D í az, J.; Cobo, M.J.; Guti é rrez-Salcedo, M.; Segado-Boj, F.; Herrera-Viedma, E. Mapeo cient í fico de la Categoría «Comunicación» en WoS (1980–2013). Comunicar 2018,26, 81–91. [CrossRef] 45. Davis, R.A. A cognitive-behavioral model of pathological Internet use. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2001 ,17, 187–195. [CrossRef] 46. Morahan-Martin, J.; Schumacher, P. Incidence and correlates of pathological Internet use among college students. Comput. Hum. Behav. 2000,16, 13–29. [CrossRef] 47. Block, J.J. Issues for DSM-V: Internet addiction. Am. J. Psychiatry 2008,165, 306–307. [CrossRef] 48. Compton, W.M.; Volkow, N.D. Major increases in opioid analgesic abuse in the United States: Concerns and strategies. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2006,81, 103–107. [CrossRef] © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).