Data Protection in Digital Tax Administration: A Bibliometric Review of Research Trends, Influential Studies, and Emerging Themes
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Digital transformation has reshaped tax administration into an integrated, automated, and data-driven system, making data protection essential to its legitimacy. Electronic tax systems process sensitive taxpayer information; however, knowledge concerning data protection in digital tax administration remains fragmented, creating a need for a systematic mapping of the literature. This study aims to map the development, influential publications, and thematic structure of research on data protection in digital tax administration. A systematic review combined with bibliometric analysis was conducted using 69 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 1998 and 2026. The dataset was analyzed using Bibliometrix in RStudio through annual scientific production, local citation analysis, and thematic mapping. The findings show that publication activity remained limited during the early period but increased substantially after 2019, reaching its highest levels in 2024 and 2025. Local citation analysis identifies Scarcella (2019) as the most influential publication within the corpus. The thematic map reveals three major motor-theme clusters: GDPR, transparency, and automated decision-making; fraud, cybersecurity, and identity theft; and tax administration, tax compliance, and tax evasion. Data privacy remains a basic theme, while data protection and information exchange occupy a central transitional position. The novelty of this study lies in integrating the technological, legal, and administrative dimensions of taxpayer data protection within a unified bibliometric landscape, thereby demonstrating how privacy, cybersecurity, and automated governance are increasingly shaping research on digital tax administration.
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