article 32 research paper

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A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE 32 & 226 by-Ishan Anand

The Fundamental Rights (FRs) that are provided in part III (article 122-353) of the Indian Constitution, is available to all Indian citizens. As of now, there are six fundamental Rights. But the question arises, what if these fundamentals rights are infringed? So, as a remedy for the infringement of one’s fundamental right there is Art. 324 and 2265. Under Art. 326 one can reach to the apex court i.e., the SC for the infringement of his Fundamental right under Art. 2267 he/she can go to the HC. There are six fundamental Rights mentioned in Constitution of India and people are exercising it, but the importance of Art. 32 increases because it works as the saviour to the fundamental rights by providing the right to the citizens to approach to the apex court for the infringement of their FR’s. Also, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, “Father of the Indian Constitution” called Article 32 “The Heart and Soul of the Indian Constitution” and he also said, “If I was asked to name any particular article in this constitution as the most important – an article without which this constitution would be a nullity, I could not refer to any other article except Article 32 – Right to Constitutional Remedies.” So, in this paper the scope of Art. 32 and 226 has been discussed and what are the similarities and dissimilarities in these two articles and also how the privilege of seeking justice directly from the apex court as per Art. 32 is being misused and the problem of frivolous petitions in courts, which is over burdening the Judiciary. Keywords: Fundamental Rights, Article 32, Article 226, Similarities, Dissimilarities, Public Interest litigation, Misuse, Frivolous petitions.

INTRODUCTION

“True peace is not merely the absence of war; it is the presence of Justice.”

– Jane Addams

The Constitution of India is considered as the supreme rule of the country. It was written with the faith that laymen and lawyers will read it alike, but after seventy years, some scared articles of the Indian Constitution have become so difficult to understand that a common man today would be confused if he reads the original text of the Constitution and the reason behind is, that there is a significant gap between the plain text and what is being practiced as a result of many decisions by various Courts of Law, whether it is the apex Courtor any High Court. India being the largest democracy in the world stands apart and succeeds, the reason is, it has been bolstered from time to time by its judicial foundation, which has seen countless martyrs during this holy war. For over two centuries, India has been ruled by the British. Although the British established formal courts of law in India, they did not give judges much discretion because the laws were codified. As a result, in 1950 when the Constitution was adopted, the lawcourts were not willing to stray too far from the context of the texts of the laws in effect. While the judiciary began to shift itself from being a police state to a genuine welfare state after the emergency of 1975. In order to provide full justice, courts of law have begun to apply purposive interpretation, or the golden rule of interpretation, to the rules of the law. Apart from the FRs which are provided in part III of the Indian Constitution, there are two more Articles which are more important than that i.e., Art. 32 and Art. 226. These two Articles becomes more important than other articles because it provides the remedies to the infringement of one’s FRs and that is the reason, when the father of the Indian Constitution and the Chairman of the drafting committee was asked to comment on the most important article inthe Constitution of India, he said, “If I was asked to name any particular article in this Constitution as the most important — an article without which this Constitution would be a nullity — I could not refer to any other article except this one (Article 32). It is the very soul of the Constitution and the very heart of it.” The scope of Art. 32 and 226 is expanding day by day, as it gives people the right to file a PIL and a writ petition in the SC and HC if they find that their constitutional rights are being violated. A writs petition and a public interest Litigation (PIL) may be filed to ensure that human rights are enforced. When an individual’s civil rights are violated, a Writs petition is filed, while a PIL is filed for the benefit of the general public. The SC and HC’s have the authority under this Art. 32 and Art. 226 to issue five separate writs, including habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto, and certiorari, as the court sees fit for the execution of the rights conferred in this part. This article cannot be suspended except when there is a National Crisis which is mentioned under Article 359. Also, it provided the privilege to the petitioner to directly reach to this Supreme Court. But the privileges provided under these two articlesare being misused by the legal officers because they are filing PILs with a very petty subject or they are frivolous in nature. The Hon’ble SC and HCsof different states have recorded many such petitions which are frivolous in nature and they are only wasting the time of the learned courts. On 21st Feb, 2021 in one of the cases, the Hon’ble SC having J. DY Chandrachud said,” These contempt petitions which we initiate when undertaking is not met is increasing over burden” agreeing to this, J. MR Shah said, “We judge are, at times responsible for increasing the burden on judiciary8”.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This research paper talks about the scope of Art. 32 and 226, and how these two articles work as the guardian of the FRs, though SC is the actual guardian of the fundamental rights, but Art. 226 is also for the protection of the FRs as well as other legal and constitutional rights. Then it talks about the application of Art. 32 and 226 lies against whom i.e., can these be invoked against private individuals or not and along with that it also focuses on the liberalization of locus standi. The best part of this paper is it also focuses on the new dimensions of the writ jurisdiction of SC and HC under Art. 32 and 2269. This article focuses on the difference between Article 32 and 226. It starts with a brief introduction of both the articles and then the author explains all the five writs namely Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Prohibition, Certiorari and Quo-Warranto. Then he moves on to explain the difference between the two articles and gives seven major difference along with the case laws10. This article deals with the difference between Art. 32 and 226, the article is written in a very comprehensive manner, first it talks about the applicability, scope and enforceability against private individuals of Art. 32, then it talks about the scope of Art. 226 also. The author explains all the five writs along with the important case laws related with it and then lastly, she gives the major difference betweenArt. 32 and 226.11 This article deals with a very relevant topic i.e., filing of frivolous PILs in courts. It explains PIL in avery detailed matters as to what is the need of the PIL and why it has it is considered as a privilege provided by the judiciary. The author gives the examples of many case laws which has helped judiciary to amend laws according to the need of the society, but now lawyers are filing PILs for the individual benefit and this defeats the purpose of PIL or if they are filing a PIL concerning with public matter then it is frivolous in nature, at last he concludes that we cannot end up filing PILs but we should have to do something to stop the filing of unnecessary PILs12. This article is written by,“K.V. Vishwanathan, senior advocate and former additional solicitor general”, he focuses on the issue of frivolous and motivated PILs and they try to figure out that whether they are acting as a burden on judiciary’s time and resources, because PILs have been introduces in India because there is a need of it, the poor section of the society can seek justice through it. But now it is being misused by the legal officers and for which he suggests that judiciary should do something to dismiss these frivolous PILs without wasting any time on it13.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Ques. 1: Why Art. 226 has been giver wider scope than Art. 32, despite Art. 32 being the “Heart & Soul of the Indian Constitution”? Ques. 2: What are the similarities and dissimilarities between Art. 32 and 226?

Ques. 3: What is the need of the PIL in Indian Society, but now how this privilege is being misused by the legal officers?

CHAPTER 1: SCOPE OF ARTICLE 32 & 226

The fundamental or the basis of the principle Common and Indian law system is relied upon a well-knownLatinmaxim “Ubi Jus IbiRemedium” which means that wherever there is right there is remedy. Article 32’s key goal is to enforce the FRs granted by Part III of Constitution of India. As a result, the SC only hears cases where FRs have been violated under Art. 32. We are unable to reach the Supreme Court under Article 32 because there has been no breach of fundamental rights. Article 32’s scope is not as broad as Article 226’s because only Part III’s constitutional rights can be enforced using Art. 32 and the same was held in “Nain Sukh Das v. State of Uttar Pradesh14”. Other than fundamental rights, no one can bring a case before the SC for enforcement. The Hon’ble apex court must have the authority to issue writs under Article 32 because this Article is a constitutional right in itself and the court is the guardian of these rights. The writs are powerful legal tools used against the government and its officials. On the other hand, Article 226 grants the High Courts of all states the authority to enforce FR’s and other legal and constitutional rights15, which means that the HC has been given more power under Art. 32. Even, if no FR is being violated but any other legal right is violated by any administrative decision, it can be questioned in the HC under Art. 22616, not in the Supreme Court under Art. 32. Art. 226 gives the HC discretionary authority. It can only be used to serve the interests of justice. Article 226’s term “for any other purpose” is not included in Art. 32, gives the HC the authority to rule on any issue, even though no FRs has been violated. Regardless of the SC’s restricted jurisdiction, there have been several instances where the SC has heard writ petitions under Art. 32 that did not require a FR. The explanation given for such cases is that the cases heard by the SC under Art. 32 involves important constitutional issues that no court other than SC has the authority to resolve it, and no other way, other than Art. 32, to put those issues under the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. Such issues are, 1. Bihar state misusing the power of Ordinance making17. 2. Issues related to SC’s and HC’s judge’s appointment18. 3. Matters pertaining to SC’s judge removal with due procedure19.

One more point in which Art. 226 has been given more wider perspective than Art. 32 is, Art. 32 is limited in its scope for the enforcement of FRs because the petitions filed under this article lies only when the opposite party is either state or an authority which is defined in Art. 12 of the Constitution of India. Art. 12 which talks about the concept of state or an authority has been liberalised by SCin a lot of cases such as, “Rajasthan Electricity Board V. Mohanlal20, International Airport Authority Case21, Ajay Hasia V. Khalid Muji22”, and the interpretation of the text ‘other authorities’ mentioned in Art. 12 includes all these instrumentalities with the definition of state. As a result, not only does the writ lie against these authorities under Art. 226 but also under Art. 32 of Indian Constitution. The question arises whether a writ can be issued against a private citizen or a corporation for violating FRs. There is no problem with Art. 226 because the HC has the authority to issue writs against private individuals and businesses. However, there is no such limitation or guideline in relation to Art. 32. So, based on this point, we can say that the SC can issue writs against an individual or a company if they violate Articles 17, 23, and 24 of the Constitution and the same was held in case of “PUDR v. Union of India23”. CHAPTER 2: SIMILARITIES & DISSIMILARITIES BETWEEN ARTICLE 32 & 226 SIMILARITIES: 1. Both Art. 32 and 226 can be used for the infringement of one’s FR’s that is given in part III of Constitution of India. 2. Under Art. 32 and 226, SC and the HC’s have the power to issue writs.

DISSIMILARITIES:

1. The SC has the power to issue writs under Art. 32, while HCs have been given the power to issue writs under Art. 226. 2. Art. 32, which is under part III of Indian constitution, is a FR (right to constitutional remedies), while article 226 falls under Part V of the constitution and is not a fundamental right. For example, in “Darya and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh24”, it was held that Art. 32 is not only a citizen’s fundamental right, but also the supreme court’s responsibility to protect those rights. It is not necessary to file an application with the High Court before reaching the Supreme Court under Article 32 since it is a substantive right rather than a procedural right. 3. Article 32 can only be used to enforce fundamental rights, while article 226 has a broader scope and can be used to enforce fundamental rights as well as other legal rights. However, when it comes to granting compensation to the victim, the supreme court’s scope is wider under article 32 than the high court’s scope under article 226 as in the case of “Rudul Shah vs. The State of Bihar25”, Under Art. 32, the Supreme Court created a new doctrine known as compensatory jurisprudence and compensated the detainee for being held for 14 years on a wrongful murder charge. 4. Article 32 can be suspended in the same way as all other human rights can be suspended in an emergency, with the exception of Art. 21 and 22. However, Art. 226 cannot be suspended even in an emergency. 5. Article 32’s territorial jurisdiction is much broader than that of Art. 226, for example, in the cases of “Election Commission v. Saka Venkata Rao26” and “Khajoor Singh v. Union of India27”, it was held that a high court could only issue writs to an authority if it was situated within its jurisdiction. 6. Article 32 has greater authority than Art.226 and can override a HC order issued under Art.226 of the Constitution. The court decided in the case of“Daryao and others v. State of Uttar Pradesh28”, that the rule of res judicata was not only a technical rule, but that it was based on sound public policy, that the binding character of judgments pronounced by courts of competent jurisdiction was an essential part of the rule of law, and that the rule of law was the foundation of the administration of justice, which is the ultimate motive of the rule of law. 7. The SC has a mandatory obligation to issue writs under Art. 32 because it is the guardian and protector of the people’s constitutional rights, while the high court has discretion in determining whether or not to issue writs based on the facts of the case. For example, the SC held in the case of “Collector of Central Excise v. Dunlop India Ltd29”, held that Art. 226 is not intended to short-circuit or bypass legislative procedures. Only where legislative remedies are completely unable to meet the demands of exceptional cases, such as where the statute’s validity is in doubt or when private and public wrongs are inextricably connected and the avoidance of public harm and the vindication of public justice warrant it, can Art. 226 of the Constitution be invoked. A writ would not normally be granted by the Court if the contested order is made by an official within his jurisdiction and is not clearly erroneous.

CHAPTER 3: NEED & PRIVILEGE OF PIL

The constitution’s framers were a group of some remarkable Indians, among the best ever to have lived, headed by B.R. Ambedkar, the drafting committee’s chairman. After the span of two years, eleven months, and seventeen days, they paid their full attention on each article, sentence, full stop, and comma. Their unwavering efforts resulted in a phenomenon document which shows a contract among the people of India and the state on the one hand, while the citizens and the state on the other. The final draft was rejected by Ambedkar, claiming that it lacks therequirement of the young India. He claimed that rights are null unless they are accompanied by a remedy. “The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of rights conferred by this Part,” according to Art. 32. The SC’s authority to give orders, directives, or writs – as necessary for enforcing rights granted by Part III – is also outlined there. Art. 226 grants the power to every HC to give instructions, orders, or writs to any individual or authority, including the government, upon the infringement of rights conferred by Part III and for any other purpose. The SC has significantly broadened the reach of fundamental rights while also broadening the scope of its enforcement authority. After the constitution of India is ready with us, altogether a new branch of law and jurisprudence born, which has served the country from past forty years, i.e., PIL. The firm footing to this new branch was given by the bench of seven-judges in 1981’s ruling of“S.P. Gupta v. President of India and Ors.30”, when justice Bhagwati, speaking for the court, held that, “ where a legal wrong or a legal injury is caused to determinate class of persons or a legal right and such person or determinate class of person is by reason of poverty, helplessness or disability or socially or economically disadvantaged position, unable to approach the Court for relief, any member of the public can maintain an application for an appropriate direction, order or writ in the High Court under Article 226 and in case of breach of any fundamental right of such person or determinate class of persons, in this Court under Article 32 seeking judicial redress for the legal wrong or injury caused to such person or determinate class of persons…”. He said, where the persons are actually helpless, “The Supreme Court will not insist on a regular petition to be filed and can even respond to a letter by an individual acting pro bono publico.” He also said, “Whenever there is public wrong or public injury caused by omission or act or omission of the State or by a public authority which is contrary to the constitution or law, any member acting bona fide and having sufficient interest can maintain such action for redressal of such wrong or public injury”.

The reasoning given thus, “in absence of a machinery to represent public interest generally in courts, it is necessary to liberalise the rule of standing in order to provide judicial redress for public injury arising from breach of public duty or other violation of the constitution or the law by allowing public minded persona and organizations to move the court and act for a general or group interest even though they may not be directly injured in their own rights”.

Without such efforts to avoid the infringement of the rights of larger portion of society who are unable to claim those rights due to vulnerability, unawareness, or financial deprivation, the public interest can never be protected. They are sometimes unaware of their rights. Corruption, nepotism, and bias of executive decisions would go unchecked if PILs do not exist. The executive and legislative branches must be constantly monitored by the courts. Otherwise, all of our people’ constitutional rights would be rendered null and void.

The rule of law is an agreed standard in all democratic societies and Indian courts have a responsibility to uphold it.

3.1 FRIVOLOUS PETITIONS AS PIL IN SUPREME COURT & HIGH COURTS:

The concept of Public Interest Litigation (PILs) is made for the welfare of the society or for the need of the society. If any law which is not in accordance with the modern times, then it can be presented through PIL in SC or HC, so that it can benefit public at large. It is also introduced for the weaker section of the society, if they want to seek justice on any matter, they can approach to the courts through PIL. But today the privilege provided under Article 32 i.e., PIL is being misused and now it is overburdening the judiciary, it is like the privilege provided by judiciary is itself hampering the working or functioning of it.

First of all, we need to understand that there is a difference between PIL and writ petition. A writ petitions is filed when the matter is of an individual person, but a PIL is filed for an issue which benefits public at large. But in today’s time legal officers are filing PILs in SC as well as in different HCs which do not have any relation with the public at large. Secondly, they are filing petitions which are frivolous in nature, the matter is so trivial in nature that it can be resolved easily, there is no need to spend the valuable time of the learned courts, thus the privilege provided under Article 32 and 226 is being misused, concerning this issue the Hon’ble Supreme Court has framed the guidelines in the case of “State of Uttaranchal v. Balwant Singh31” in which various guidelines were issued for the preservation of purity and sanctity of PIL. After that also there had been some case of frivolous petitions, some of them are,

The 2018 “Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India32”, written by J. D.Y. Chandrachud, which contains four different paragraphs and has a separate portion on PIL. This judgement of 2018 becomes more important because it uses two paragraphs from“Balwant Singh Chaufal (2010) judgment”. The paragraphs are:

“161. Unfortunately, of late, it has been noticed that such an important jurisdiction which has been carefully carved out, created and nurtured with great care and caution by the courts, is being blatantly abused by filing some petitions with oblique motives. We think time has come when genuine and bona fide public interest litigation must be encouraged whereas frivolous public interest litigation should be discouraged.”

“162. In our considered opinion, we have to protect and preserve this important jurisdiction in the larger interest of the people of this country but we must take effective steps to prevent and cure its abuse on the basis of monetary and non- monetary directions by the courts.”

The Telangana High Court on 28th, August 2020, levied a 50,000 fine on a petitioner for filing a PIL petition for the wrong reasons and wasting the court’s valuable time.

The HC denied the petitioner’s counsel’s request to minimize the fine amount and requested that it be deposited in the Advocates Welfare Fund. B. Venkateshwarlu, a sixty-year-old resident of Nalgonda district, filed the PIL, requesting that authorities not allow the construction of a new petrol bunk near the Nagarjunsagar dam. The petition was heard by CJ Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and J. A. Abhishek Reddy and they wanted to know more about the petitioner. The bench directly inquired about his job profile after his lawyer Venkat Mayur replied that he was working part-time. The petitioner worked part-time in a gas bunk, according to the prosecutor. The bench said that filing such funded petitions in the name of public interest was not fair, noting that this suggested the likelihood of the petrol bank management being behind the PIL petition.

SUGGESTIONS

The power conferred under Art. 32 and 226 to issue five different writs on SC and HC for the infringement of FR’s mentioned in part III and Art. 32 also provides remedial measures to the aggrieved person if required. This is the best part of the Indian Constitution and may be due to this only Art. 32 is the “Heart and the soul of the Indian Constitution”. Here, the important point is, Art. 32 provides the privilege to the aggrieved party to directly approach to the SC and seek remedy for it, because it is the protector of the FR’s. But one should always keep in mind that Supreme Court is the apex court and it is already overburdened by so many important cases, so if possible, the aggrieved person or party first reach to HC and if he/she is not satisfied with it then he/she can reach to Supreme Court. The same has been said in “Kalyaneshwari v. Union of India33” in this the SC asked that the aggrieved party has to give justification while directing approaching to the apex court, why he didn’t approach to the High Court first? Secondly the legal officers who are directly approaching to the apex court must check that the subject matter of their PILs are not trivial in nature, because due to filing of frivolous petitions in apex court the judiciary is being overburdened and it is only wasting the valuable time of the court, which has been to given on important matters.

Besides these, judiciary also has to make some changes in the PIL cell, when a PIL is files, it first goes to the PIL cell and there the subject matter is checked, if the subject matter concerns with public interest it is forwarded to the bench, but now judiciary has to give some more powers to the PIL cell, so that they can dismiss the frivolous petitions then and there without wasting the time of the bench.

To wrap up this project, I would like to point out that the makers of the Constitution understand that the rights granted in part III must be enforced by the courts in order for them to be anything than just paper rights. The mere assertion of rights is insufficient without an effective solution for enforcing them. The judiciary has played an important part in safeguarding fundamental rights. It is regarded as the Guardian of the Indian Constitution under Art. 32. Article 32 is a one-of-a-kind provision in our Constitution, and in fact, no other country has such a provision. Regardless of the position played by the judiciary, we have failed to achieve either social or economic justice after six decades of independence. Because of its position, strategy, and recommendations to allow the most appropriate use of the nation’s resources, the SC and the HC’s have high respect for the shared jurisdiction of the HC’s and the SC over violations of constitutional rights. As per the research of the author and the discussion in the paper, the SC has liberalized its authority under Art. 32 and 226 in order to provide justice to people of India as per their requirement. We all are also aware of the universal principle of law is that where there is a right, there must also be a remedy, since a right without a remedy is nothing more than a sand rope. In this regard, our Constitution’s provision for the protection of fundamental rights is a unique feature. However, the constitutional mechanism is insufficient since there is still a large distance between the lip and the cup. “There are always persons who will file frivolous petitions. But does one close down an entire legal system because some cases without merit are filed?” – Colin Gonslaves

PILs on the chance in climate and environment, rights of women’s, atrocities related to lower caste people, unfair tribal evictions, the destruction of suns, and etc. continue to be filed with great success. These cases have a huge impact and we should not ignore it. Only in the condition of “Right to food”, food supplements were increased from 400 million to 700 million people. Without the finest and most widely recognized PIL jurisprudence in the world, the case laws of India will be devoid of conscience. Person, who oppose PILs are, at their heart, opposing the mechanism that was created to guard the vulnerable and upgraded human rights. PILs serve as a reminder to the public and judges that the country has a spirit. All nations will perish if there is lack of morals, ethics, culture, compassion, goodwill and brotherhood. Also, the most prosperous economies will eventually collapse. The justice system, too, has a conscience. It extends beyond the Constitution’s and statutes’ written terms. In the constitution, there is a divine influence. PILs strike back when the law’s spirituality is mocked and ridiculed. The PIL litigant takes legal action when menstruating women were barred from entering in temples. The PIL litigants challenges the issue that always the minority people are guided what they can and cannot eat. The response is given, the Constitution wins, against the slogan majority wins. Resistance to dictatorship, abuse, and bigotry is at the heart of the PIL. Thus, the privilege provided under Art. 32 and 226 to file a PIL and a writ petition in courts must be used faithfully and sincerely, so that it will not overburden the judiciary and also the purpose of PIL does not gets defeated. REFERENCES

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33.Kalyaneshwari v. Union of India, (2011) 3 SCC 287

International Journal of Legal Science & Innovation

[issn 2581 – 9453].

Exploring the Contemporary Relevance of Article 32: A Study on Public Interest Litigation, Jurisprudence, and Demosprudence

• Aakansh Vijay and Aaryan Bagrecha
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Aakansh Vijay

Student at National Law University, Jodhpur, India.

Aaryan Bagrecha

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This paper examines the critical interplay between Article 32 of the Indian Constitution and Public Interest Litigation (PIL), pivotal to safeguarding justice and fundamental rights in India. Article 32 empowers citizens to seek Supreme Court intervention for rights violations, forming the basis for PILs that advocate for the voiceless and marginalized, transcending traditional legal protocols. The study traces the historical evolution of these legal instruments from the Constitution's inception to the present, highlighting the Supreme Court's shift from a conventional judiciary to an active socio-political entity. This study examines PIL jurisprudence that dates back to the 1980s and highlights key cases that have influenced the field's growth. It highlights how the effectiveness of PILs is influenced by judicial activism and demosprudence, or democratic judicial inventiveness, demonstrating the Supreme Court's dedication to justice outside of inflexible legal frameworks. Analyses comparing PIL in the UK and the USA show both shared and distinct national issues, such as procedural delays and judicial overreach. A detailed case study of the Narmada Bachao Andolan PIL illustrates the complexities of balancing development with environmental and social justice, emphasizing PIL's role in addressing multifaceted public interest issues. The paper concludes by addressing criticisms of PIL, including potential misuse and judicial overreach, and underscores the need for preserving its integrity as a tool for justice. Through this exploration, the paper highlights the transformative impact of Article 32 and PIL in reinforcing democratic ideals and ensuring justice in India.

• Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
• Jurisprudence
• Judicial Activism
• Demosprudence.

Research Paper

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International Journal of Legal Science and Innovation, Volume 6, Issue 3, Page 1228 - 1241

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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits remixing, adapting, and building upon the work for non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright © IJLSI 2021

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https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLSI.112030

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The Comparative Study of Articles 32 and 226 of the Constitution of India

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JAI MAA SARASWATI GYANDAYNI AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY E JOURNAL International Journal peer reviewed, open access, online journal publish quaterly e journal

In today's context judicial activism is playing very vital and important role to protect and preserve the Fundamental Rights, Human Rights and Other Rights. It is one of the main instruments as the most effective remedy of the Hon'ble apex Court and High Courts of states. Hon'ble Supreme Court under article 32 and High Courts under article 226 of

smruti ranjan sahoo

Shivam Goel

Administrative set-ups world over are suffering, more, from State in-action rather than State mischief; much less to say, State in-action is State mischief in abstract sense. Writ of mandamus is prerogative command of the least powered (but, most banked upon) wing of the State, that is 'judiciary,' to cure the 'sleep walking' tendency of the Government that more often than less, pulls the democratic carriage, premised upon the 'rule of law,' into the darkness of State anarchy, where rights, civil, political, legal and fundamental are just black-letters, although written in gold in the State’s Suprema Lex, are effected usually by the maladies of corruption, red-tape, excessive bureaucracy and nepotism of novel sorts. Judicial activism of recent times has added to the writ nomenclature like never before, with writs like 'certiorarified mandamus,' 'anticipatory mandamus' and 'continuing mandamus' passing the social-floor-test, trying to make entry through the legal textual gateway. All this speaks of two things, firstly, State in-action has added to public distrust in the positivist view of law, and secondly, judiciary has taken recourse to activist tendency, pulling the curtains up for the realist view of law to display the much needed action.

Ziyasa Johardeen

“There can to my mind be no doubts that the authors of the constitution intended that those rights should be enforceable by the courts of law. They could never have intended to confer a right without a remedy. The remedy is indeed, part and parcel of the right. ubi jus ibi remadium.”

Naveen Kumar Shelar

Dr. AVANI MISTRY

IJAR Indexing

The Supreme Court of India, considered as the epitome of Justice in India, upholds the Human Rights through Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy. The expression \'fundamental\' indicates that all human beings are endowed with certain rights that are essential for human existence and for flourishing of the human persona and mind. Hence, these rights tend to protect the dignity of the individuals and create conditions in which the human beings can develop their personality to the fullest extent. In A.D.M., Jabalpur v. S. Shukla, Beg, J., observed that the object of making certain general aspects of rights fundamental is to guarantee them against illegal invasion of these rights by executive, legislative or judicial organ of the State. The Supreme Court of India has recognised these fundamental rights as ‘natural rights\' or \'human rights\'. Chief Justice Patanjali Shastri has referred to fundamental rights as \'those great and basic rights which are recognised and guaranteed as the natural rights inherent in the status of a citizen of a free country’. Similarly, the Chief Justice Subba Rao in I.C. Golakanath v. State of Punjab has very rightly observed that \'fundamental rights are the modern name for what have been traditionally known as natural rights.\' They are moral rights which every human being everywhere at all times ought to have simply because of the fact that in contradiction with other beings, he is rational or moral. It hardly matters that by what name they are known . This paper will deal with various cases of Supreme Court in upholding Human Rights Standards. Human Rights, Law, Supreme Court.

Cochin University Law Review

Dr. Harunrashid A Kadri

In 1976, Indian Parliament amended the Constitution through the 42nd Amendment Act which provides for establishment of tribunals free from the control of High Courts and subject only to the limited appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. By this amendment, Articles 323 A and 323B were inserted which enabled Parliament to constitute certain tribunals to deal with specific disputes and also empowered the appropriate legislature to exclude the jurisdiction of all courts except that of the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution with respect to the matters falling within the jurisdiction of such tribunals. In exercise of these powers conferred under Article 323 A, Parliament enacted Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 which established Administrative Tribunals with the exclusion of judicial review of Supreme Court under Article 32, and High Courts under Articles 226 and 227 of the constitution. This Act and the amendment were subjected to scrutiny by Supreme Court through a number of petitions. The present paper is an attempt to examine the Supreme Court’s response to these petitions. This paper concludes that the category of tribunals created under above mentioned law can never be considered full and effective substitutes for the superior judiciary. Several tribunals functioning in the country have not inspired confidence in the public mind. The quality of justice is said to have suffered and the cause of expedition is not found to have been served by establishment of such tribunals. Therefore the quasi-judicial bodies should not be left free of control of the judiciary. The High Court should have the jurisdiction to supervise over these bodies.

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Right to Constitutional Remedies (Article 32): Meaning, Provisions & Significance

The Right to Constitutional Remedies, enshrined as a fundamental right in the Indian Constitution, is pivotal for justice, accountability, and the protection of individual rights. It empowers citizens to seek redress for the violation of rights, which is crucial for safeguarding liberties in a democracy. This article of Next IAS delves into its key provisions including the writ jurisdiction, shedding light on their vital role in upholding democratic principles and fostering a just society.

Meaning of Constitutional Remedies

Constitutional Remedies refer to the legal mechanisms provided by the constitution of a country to safeguard and enforce the fundamental rights of individuals. These remedies empower citizens to seek relief from the judiciary when their constitutional rights are violated by the state or any other entity. These remedies serve as a crucial means of upholding the rule of law, ensuring accountability, and protecting the rights and liberties of citizens within a democratic society.

Right to Constitutional Remedies in India

The Right to Constitutional Remedies is a Fundamental Right enshrined in the Constitution of India. The detailed provisions related to the Right to Constitutional Remedies contained in Article 32 of the Indian Constitution serve as a bulwark against the infringement of fundamental rights in India. By providing a legal mechanism for enforcement of the fundamental rights of an aggrieved citizen, this right makes the fundamental rights real.

Right to Constitutional Remedies: Provisions under the Indian Constitution

Article 32 of the Indian Constitution of India confers the Right to Constitutional Remedies for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of an aggrieved citizen. It contains the following four provisions in this regard:

• The right to move to the Supreme Court for enforcement of Fundamental Rights is guaranteed.
• The Supreme Court shall have the power to issue directions, orders, or writs for the enforcement of any of the Fundamental Rights.
• Here, the phrase ‘any other court ’ does not include the High Court, because Article 226 has already conferred this power on the High Court.
• President can suspend the right to move to any court for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights during a National Emergency.

The following points are to be noted with respect things the Right to Constitutional Remedies:

• This right makes the right to get the Fundamental Rights protected itself a Fundamental Right, thus making the Fundamental Rights real.
• Its significance made Dr. B.R. Ambedkar hail this right as the “heart and soul” of the Constitution.
• This provision makes the Supreme Court the defender and guarantor of Fundamental Rights.
• Original Powers – An aggrieved citizen can directly go to the Supreme Court, not necessarily by way of appeal.
• Wide Powers – The powers of the Supreme Court in this regard are not restricted to issuing orders or directions, but also writs of all kinds.
• Not Exclusive Powers – The powers of the Supreme Court in this regard are concurrent with that of any other court as empowered by the Parliament for this purpose. e.g. the writ jurisdiction of High Courts under Article 226.
• Only Fundamental Rights, and not any other rights, can be enforced under Article 32 .

Supreme Court’s Views On Right to Constitutional Remedies

The Supreme Court has declared that Article 32 of the Indian Constitution is a basic feature of the Constitution. Thus, it cannot be abridged or taken away even by way of a Constitutional Amendment Act.

About the Writs

• In the context of India , Writs refer to f ormal written orders issued by a court empowered for the purpose, which aimed at enforcing fundamental rights and correcting legal wrongs.
• In India, the power to issue writs is conferred only to the Supreme Court (Article 32) and the High Courts (Article 226).
• It is to be noted that as per the provisions under Article 32, the Parliament can empower any other court to issue writs, without prejudicing the same powers of SC. However, no such provision has been made so far.
• The features of ‘Writs’ in India are borrowed from the Constitution of the UK where they are known as Prerogative Writs.

About the Writ Petitions

A writ petition is a formal written application or request submitted to the Supreme Court or a High Court seeking the issuance of a writ. These petitions are filed by individuals, organizations, or entities to invoke the court’s jurisdiction to protect their fundamental rights, enforce statutory rights, or challenge governmental or administrative actions.

Types of Writs

In India, the Supreme Court, the High Courts or any other courts empowered for the purpose can issue the following five types of writs:

Habeas Corpus

Prohibition.

• Quo Warranto
• The literal meaning of this term is – ‘to have the body of’.
• Thus, this writ is the bulwark of individual liberty against arbitrary detention .
• detention is lawful,
• the proceeding is for contempt of a legislature or a court,
• detention is by a competent court,
• detention is outside the jurisdiction of the court.
• The literal meaning of this term is – ‘ we command’ .
• It is a command issued by the court to a public official, asking him to perform his official duties that he has failed or refused to perform.
• It can be issued to a public official, a public body, a corporation, an inferior court, a tribunal, or the government for the same purpose.
• against a private individual or body,
• to enforce departmental instruction that does not possess statutory force,
• when the duty is discretionary in nature,
• to enforce a contractual obligation,
• against the President of India, the State Governors, and the Chief Justice of a High Court.
• The literal meaning of this term is – ‘to forbid’.
• It is issued by a higher court to a lower court or tribunal to prevent the latter from exceeding its jurisdiction or usurping a jurisdiction that it does not possess.
• Thus, while the writ of ‘Mandamus’ directs activity , the writ of ‘Prohibition’ directs inactivity .
• The writ of prohibition can be issued only against judicial and quasi-judicial bodies and cannot be issued against administrative authorities, legislative bodies, or private entities.
• The literal meaning of this term is – ‘to be certified’ or ‘to be informed’ .
• It is issued by a higher court to a lower court or tribunal either to transfer a case pending with the latter to itself or to squash the order of the latter in a case.
• Thus, while the writ of ‘Prohibition ’ is only preventive , the writ of ‘Certiorari’ is both preventive as well as curative.
• It can be issued against judicial, quasi-judicial, as well as administrative authorities, but not available against legislative bodies, private individuals or bodies, etc.

Quo-Warranto

• The literal meaning of this term is – ‘by what authority or warrant’.
• Hence, it prevents illegal usurpation of public office by a person.
• Unlike the other writs, this can be sought by any interested person and not necessarily by the aggrieved person.
• This writ can be issued only in the case of substantial public office of a permanent character created by a statute or by the Constitution. It cannot be issued in the case of ministerial or private offices.

Writ Jurisdiction of Supreme Court and High Court

The writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court differs from that of the High Courts in three respects:

Significance of Writs In the Indian Constitution

Writs, by their very nature, hold immense significance in the context of India. Some of their significance can be seen as follows:

• Protection of Fundamental Rights – These writs provide individuals with a swift and effective means to seek judicial intervention when their rights are infringed upon by the state or any other authority.
• Judicial Review – These writs enable the judiciary to exercise its power of judicial review over the actions of government bodies, administrative authorities, and other institutions. This ensures that governmental actions are lawful, within the scope of their authority, and consistent with constitutional provisions.
• Checks and Balances – These writs allow courts to review and potentially overturn decisions or orders of lower authorities. This contributes to maintaining a system of checks and balances within the system.
• Prevention of Abuse of Power – Writs such as mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, and quo warranto act as preventive measures against the arbitrary exercise of authority by public officials or bodies. They compel adherence to legal procedures, fairness, and transparency in decision-making processes.
• Ensuring Administrative Accountability – Writs hold administrative and judicial bodies accountable for their actions or omissions. They help rectify errors of law or excesses of jurisdiction thereby promoting administrative accountability and integrity.
• Promotion of Justice and Equity – Writs contribute to the promotion of justice and equity by providing individuals with access to timely and effective remedies against injustice, oppression, or unlawful deprivation of rights. They uphold the rule of law and ensure equal protection under the law for all citizens.

In conclusion, the Right to Constitutional Remedies stands as a cornerstone of democracy and justice. By enabling individuals to seek redressal of violations of their fundamental rights, they foster a just and equitable society. Thus, the Right to Constitutional Remedies serves as a bulwark against tyranny and injustice, embodying the essence of a vibrant and inclusive democracy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is right to constitutional remedies .

The Right to Constitutional Remedies, enshrined in Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, is a fundamental right that empowers individuals to seek legal remedies from the Supreme Court and High Courts for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.

What is ‘Writ’ in Indian Constitution?

Writs refer to formal written orders issued by a court empowered for the purpose, which aimed at enforcing fundamental rights and correcting legal wrongs.

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Constitution of India

Remedies for enforcement of rights conferred by this Part

(1) The right to move the Supreme Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of the rights conferred by this Part is guaranteed.

(2) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus , mandamus , prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari , whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this Part.

(3) Without prejudice to the powers conferred on the Supreme Court by clauses (1) and (2), Parliament may by law empower any other court to exercise within the local limits of its jurisdiction all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2).

(4) The right guaranteed by this article shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution.

Article 25, Draft Constitution of India 1948

(2) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue directions or orders in the nature of the writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari, whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this Part.

(3) Parliament may by law empower any other court to exercise within the local limits of its jurisdiction all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2) of this article.

(4) The rights guaranteed by this article shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution.

Article 32, Constitution of India 1950

⁠(2) The Supreme Court shall have power to issue directions or orders or writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus , mandamus , prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari , whichever may be appropriate, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred by this Part.

⁠(3) Without prejudice to the powers conferred on the Supreme Court by clauses (1) and (2), Parliament may by law empower any other court to exercise within the local limits of its jurisdiction all or any of the powers exercisable by the Supreme Court under clause (2).

⁠(4) The right guaranteed by this article shall not be suspended except as otherwise provided for by this Constitution.

The Constituent Assembly took up Draft Article 25 for debate on 9 December 1948 . The Draft Article gives citizens the right to approach the Supreme Court for constitutional remedies when their fundamental rights are violated.

The Assembly was unanimous about the importance of the Article. Members referred to the provision in terms that included ‘ the crowning section ’ and ‘ very soul… and the very heart of the Constitution ’. However, some amendments were moved.

A member wanted to remove the mention of specific writs in the provision. He felt that this would constrain judges, as they would not be able to evolve new writs in the future. Another member was unhappy with clause 4 that allowed for the suspension of the Draft Article during an emergency which he termed as a ‘ dangerous situation ’.

It was clarified that the specific writs mentioned in the provision were in existence in Great Britain for a very long time, they have been tried and tested, and most lawyers, judges and jurists were familiar with them. It was further stated that it was near to impossible to improve upon the existing writs and therefore there really was no possibility of new writs emerging. On the question of suspension of the Draft Article, it was argued that is was reasonable to suspend or limit fundamental rights during an emergency as the very life of the State was at stake.

The Draft Article was adopted with some amendments on the same day, that is 9 December 1948.

Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research ISSN: 2582-8878 | PIF: 6.605 Indexed at Manupatra, Google Scholar, HeinOnline & ROAD

Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research

• Jul 28, 2021

Writ Jurisdiction: Scope And Limitations Faced By The Courts

Gopika Thakur, Bennett University, Greater Noida

The paper majorly focuses on the Writ jurisdiction under Article 32 and Article 226 of the Indian constitution. The paper initially talks about the types of reliefs available and the functions of these articles and then progresses on to discuss the limitations of these articles on the judicial courts of law. The scope of the research paper limits to the powers of the Supreme Court and the High court to exercise these powers granted to them by the Constitution to protect the rights of the citizens from its infringement. The paper will also aim to discuss the interrelation between the two articles and what makes them distinct from each other. We shall also look into the various challenges faced by the courts when huge number of these petitions are filed before them and how they take cognizance of the matter and dispose them in the appropriate manner.

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Right to Constitutional Remedies

This article is written by Akash R. Goswami of faculty of law,  Aligarh Muslim University.   In this article, he has discussed the constitutional remedies and right to approach the Supreme Court provided by the Constitution of India, and the concept of Public Interest Litigation. 

“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”  

                                                                                               –  Abraham Lincoln

Table of Contents

Introduction

Rights make people powerful, although it is not necessary that all citizens have equal resources and wealth one thing is for sure that they have it in terms of equality, all the countrymen inherently by birth, have their fundamental rights. 

But to protect their rights people must have an alternative to enforce them. Article 32 works in that sense. With great power comes with great responsibilities, people use these rights as a weapon of harassment and PIL become the Industry of vested interest. Despite that, no one can be allowed to infringe on the rights of others. To ensure the safety of his/her rights people must be aware of the remedies provided in our constitution. Let us talk about in particular.

Article 32 

In day to day life, people do some acts which result in the violation of someone else’s rights. They may not do so deliberately but their acts may result in the violation of rights. Some rights if contravene, people ask for compensation or damages like in contracts & torts. But if some rights especially the fundamental rights are violated then people seek to constitutional remedies.

To know more about right to constitutional remedies in brief, please refer to the video below:

“Constitutional remedies” is envisaged in our Indian Constitution under  article 32 in Part III. Every citizen of India is guaranteed five fundamental rights, in totality it’s six but if any of the five fundamental rights are violated then the sixth fundamental right ensures people and protects other fundamental rights from being violated. concerning that, if any fundamental right is infringed, sixth fundamental right .ie. “ Right to Constitutional Remedies ” provides that people can enforce or claim these rights in the Hon’ble Supreme court.

Remedies for enforcement of the rights conferred by Article 32

This article contains four clauses :.

• People have the right to move the Court by appropriate proceedings for the enforcement of their rights granted by part III of the Indian Constitution. In other words one can move to enforce his/her right to the apex court in way of proper proceedings is assured. 
• Apex Court shall have the power to Produce orders, directions, injunctions, and writs, including writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto, prohibition and certiorari whichever may be suitable, for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred In part III. 
• Parliament can empower any other court to issue directions, does not include Supreme Court & High court . M.V Plyee rightly claims the first three clauses of article 32, together make fundamental rights under the constitution real and forming the Crowing part of the entire chapter. 
• The right to move to the Supreme Court shall not be suspended except provided by the constitution like in case of emergency.   In other words, the President of India may under article 358 make separate proclamation by which Article 32 remains suspended even the person’s right is violated. This is because individual liberty is not more important than the interest of states.

Right to constitutional remedies works on the Doctrine “ Ubi Jus Ibi Remedium” which means when there is right there is a remedy . As the people of India guaranteed many rights so no one can violate these rights, then there must be some remedies to protect them.

In case Ram Singh vs Delhi [1 ],   the Supreme Court of India observed that it is the duty of the supreme court to see the right, intended to be fundamental must be kept fundamentally.

A mere threat to infringement of fundamental rights is enough to justify the issue of the  writ in case of Simranjit vs Union Of India[2].  

 Article 226

Power to issue the writ is not only vested in the hands of the Supreme Court of India, but also in the hands of every High Court of India.  Article 226 empowers the High Court to issue any person or authority and state institution, including the government call for directions, orders or writs. Writs in the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari, quo warranto or any of them.

Article 226 has four clauses

• Notwithstanding anything in Article 32, every High Court shall have the power throughout the territory in which High Court exercises its jurisdiction issue writs , orders and directions for the enforcement of right conferred in part III and for any other purpose. 
• Power assured by clause (1) to issue directions,orders or writs by High Court within the territory exercising its jurisdiction in relation to the territory in which the reason of action, wholly or partially, arises for the exercise of such power, notwithstanding that the bench of such Government or authority or the residence of such person is not within those territories. 
• Where a writ petition has been filed against the respondent party an interim order by way of injunction or stay has been passed against respondent without-
• Providing to such parties, copies of the petition and all documents in support thereof.
• Giving such a party an opportunity to be heard.
• If such respondent party moves an application for removing the interim order and gives a copy of such application to the petitioner, the Court is required to decide such application within two weeks from the date on which such application is filed or on the date on which the copy of such application is provided to another side whichever is later. 
• The power empowered to the High Court by this article shall not be in derogation of the powers entitled on the Supreme court by clause (2) of Article 32.

Writ petition only praying for refund of money against the State is not maintainable observed in the case Suganmal vs State Of Madhya Pradesh[3].

It is established that the remedy provided in Article 226 of the Constitution of India is a discretionary solution which means on its own will, and the High Court has always its discretion to refuse or to grant such grievances in certain circumstances even though a legal right might have been infringed.

Article 227  

This article States that every High Court shall have superintendence over all Courts and Tribunal within the territory having the jurisdiction except the court established by the armed forces.

High Court can, under Article 227

• Call for returns from such courts.
• draft and issue general to maintain rules and regulations for smoothing the practice and proceedings of such courts.
• Prescribe the mode in which books, documents, entries, and accounts be kept by the officers.
• Settle salaries and remuneration allowed to the sheriff and clerks of such Court. 

 Difference between Article 32 & Article 226

Writs are the formal written document bearing the name of the court, or other legal authority to do some act, abstain or refrain from doing something. These writs have been borrowed from England, where the history of writs had a long development and counted for more number of technicalities.

Under Article 32 & 226 of the Indian Constitution supreme court and the high courts have the power to issue Writs respectively. In India, first writs were issued by the Supreme Court at Calcutta later by the supreme court of Bombay & madras and since 1861 & 1937 by high courts and Supreme Court of India respectively. 

There are five types of writs which are as follows.

Habeas corpus

The term habeas corpus is derived from the Latin term which means “ You must have the body ”. In the legal context, it stands for habeas corpus Ad subjiciendum means writ for securing liberty. By the help of this writ Court direct the person or any authority and state institution whosoever detained/wrongfully confines another person, to produce the body of the prisoner before the court so as to decide by the court the validity, jurisdiction, and justification for such detention. The principle aim of this writ is to ensure judicial review of unlawful detention on liberty or freedom of an accused. And also enables an immediate claim of the right of a person as to his freedom.

Article  22  of the Indian Constitution provides that, if the police or any authority arrested the person is required to be produced before a magistrate within 24 specified hours of his arrest (excluding the journey hours) and miss out to do so would entitle the arrested person to be released.

This writ can not be granted where a person has been committed taken by police under an order from a competent court then its Prima facie (at first sight) the order does not appear to be without justification, jurisdiction or wholly illegal, hence writ of habeas corpus would not be work.

It is granted not only against state but also against the individual, where a person holds the wrongful detention of another person, in this case, it is the duty of the police to make necessary efforts and make sure that the detention of the person got released, but the police can not put under pressure to do the impossible.

In the case of the National Emergency imposed this Writ can not be issued and people can not seek the assistance of the court for illegal detention observed by the Supreme Court in Case A.D.M Jabalpur vs. Shivkant shukla[4]. Five  Judges constitutional bench gave this controversial judgment with a ratio of 4 out 5.

Quo Warranto  

This means what is your authority? This writ is used to Control the judicially Executive actions in the matter of appointment to public office under relevant provisions. This writ also helps in to protects citizens from the holder of a public office which he has no Right and calls upon the holder to public office to the Court on what Authority he is holding the office is a question. If he is not eligible for the office then the court directs the person to vacate the office and declares the office to be vacant.

This writ helps to maintain control over Executive from making appointments in public office against law and also protects the public from being deprived of public office to which the public has a right.

Quo Warranto also helps to prevent illegal usurpation of public office by an individual. To issue this writ there must be some conditions to be satisfied by the court that the office is in question must be public,created by the constitution or law or by statutory provisions and the person who is holding the office is not qualified to hold the office and the person has to show on what Authority he is holding the office. In the case of Jamalpur Arya samaj vs. Dr D ram[5] , Patna High Court said that writ of Quo Warranto can not be issued against private association only public offices will be lying under this writ scope.

Derived from the Latin term meaning “ We command ”. It is issued by the Court to an authority directing to perform a public duty which is imposed on it by law. In other words, when a body omits to do Some act which it’s bound to do, it can be commanded to do the same.

Mandamus writs help to confines the limit of the body and exercise its Jurisdiction within the scope vested on it. To issue this writ there must be some conditions that are required to be fulfilled that the petitioner must have the legal right to the performance of the legal duty, the legal duty must be of public nature. The right sought to be enforced must be subsisting on the date of the petition and as a general rule mandamus is not issued in anticipation of injury. 

Mandamus can not be invoked against the President & Governor of the state in his personal capacities, moreover no mandamus can lie against an officer or member of parliament or an officer or member of State legislature in whom power is vested by the Constitution for Regulating procedure and conduct of the business for maintaining Order and conduct in parliament as well as state legislatures.

Certiorari     

In the literal sense, it means “ to be informed ” or “ To be Certified ”. It is issued by the apex/higher Court to the lower Court or to the Tribunal either to pass-on a case pending with the later to itself or to Squash the order of the later in a case. It is issued when there is an excess of jurisdiction or lack of jurisdiction or there is an error of law.

The writ of Certiorari is preventive as well as curative in nature and could be issued only against the judicial or quasi-judicial body and not against the administrative body. After 1991, the Supreme Court ordered that this writ can be issued against the Administrative body affecting the rights of individuals. But a writ of certiorari cannot be issued to produce a call for records or paper And proceeding of an Act or Ordinance and for Quashing such Act and Ordinance.

Prohibition

Stand for “ order inaction” and issued by the Higher Court to the Lower Court or Tribunal Directing the judge or party to cease the litigation because the inferior court does not have jurisdiction to hear and decide before it. This writ is an extraordinary remedy, rarely used. Same as the writ of certiorari, this writ can be issued against the Judicial & Quasi-judicial body. 

The fundamental distinction between Certiorari & Prohibition that they are issued at different stages of proceedings. When a subordinate court takes up a matter for a hearing over which it has neither jurisdiction nor it has legal  power to decide the case the person against whom injunction/action is taken can proceed to the Higher Court for the affair of writ of prohibition on which order would be issued for refraining the subordinate court from continuing the proceedings and hearings .

On the other hand, if the court takes the matter and gives the decision which it’s not legally bound to do, the party would need to move to a higher court to quash the order.

Public Interest Litigation

PIL stands for “ PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION ” Which simply means for the protection of public interest . PIL is a legal remedy initiated in a court of law for the enforcement of public interest or general interest in which masses have a peculiar interest by which their legal rights affected. In PIL it is not necessary that the aggrieved party itself approach the court anyone can introduce PIL even the Court itself or by any other private party. It is also not mandatory for the exercise of the jurisdiction of the Court, the victim approached the court personally. PIL is the power given to the general public by the Court through Judicial Activism , however, it is to be satisfied to the Court that the petition filed is for public protection, and not on the basis of lack of legal merit.

Concept of PIL

The concept of public interest litigation was initially planted in India by Krishna Iyer J., in 1976 in Mumbai Kamgar Sabha vs. Abdul Thai case[6], Moreover Indian PIL is the improved version of PIL of USA. Basically, public interest law provides legal representation to underprivileged groups and masses.

During the time of Emergency (1975-1977) the country witnessed the colonial nature of the Indian legal system, state repression and governmental lawlessness have been done on a wide scale, there is complete deprivation of civil and political rights. Many innocent people, including political opponents and journalists, were sent to jail, this will provide better circumstances and for the judges of the Apex Court to disregard the hindrance of the Anglo-Saxon procedure and give access to justice to the poor.

Before the 1980s, only the affected parties had the Locus Standi to file the case and continue the procedure and a non-affected person having no locus standi will not do so. However, all these scenarios gradually changed during the post-emergency period and Supreme Court tackles the problem of access to justice by radical changes and modification has been done in the requirement of locus standi and of party aggrieved.

Magnificent efforts of Justice P.N Bhagwati & Justice V.R Krishna Iyer been the main reason for the Juristic Revolution to convert the Apex Court of India into the Supreme Court for all the Indians.

First Case of PIL was reported in 1979 showing the inhuman conditions of prisons and trial prisoners and a new era of PIL proclamation is done by Justice P.N Bhagwati in SP Gupta vs. Union Of India[7] . In this case, held that any member of public action or group with bonafide intention invokes the writ of Jurisdiction from High Court and Supreme Court seeking redressal against violation of the legal or constitutional right of a person who due to social or economic or other reasons can not approach to the court.

Due to the influence of this case, PIL becomes a powerful weapon for the enforcement of public duties.

Importance of PIL

There is numerous importance of PIL, let us discuss below them-

• PIL is the better use of law to advance human rights and cover the scope of broad public issues.
• Through the concept of PIL court seek to protect human rights by creating a new regime and expanding the meaning of fundamental rights.
• Filing of PIL is an inexpensive remedy anyone can get relief easily and hence remedial in nature.
• PIL helps us to improve things, which is not done by the executive properly as the Judiciary haul up the executive.
• If a person is unable to produce sufficient evidence to support his/her case due to the economic and social cause, the Court may appoint a commission to look into the matter and collect the relevant facts about the case.
• Through judicial invigilation, Court seeks to maintain state institution or also protect the rights of minorities and countless efforts made through PIL to maintain a healthy environment.

Process of filling a PIL

 Any citizen of India can file a PIL for the sake of public welfare where the interest of the masses get affected under Article 32 in Supreme Court or under Article 226 in High Court and under Court of Magistrate under  section  133 of CRPC . .A court can treat a letter or telegram as a Writ Petition and takes action upon it if some conditions collateral to it should be satisfied.

Public Interest Litigation has been logged in the same manner, as a writ petition is filed. If a PIL is filed in the High Court, then two copies of the petition have to be filed. And for the Supreme Court, then Five copies Also, an advance copy of the petition has to be served to each of the opposite parties, and this proof of service must be affixed on the petition. After that a Court fee of Rs. 50, for each number of the party, have to be affixed on the petition. Proceedings, in the PIL, start and carry on in the same manner, as other cases.

However, during the procedure and hearing of case proceedings, if the Judge feels that he may appoint the commissioner, to investigate the facts and allegations like pollution being caused, trees being cut, etc. After givings of replies, by the opponent party, or reapplication by the petitioner, the final hearing takes place, and the judge gives his eventual decision.

Subject Matter of PIL

Some categories are as follows which will be entertained as PIL

• Bonded labor 
• In the matter of exploitation of children
• Non-payment of minimum wages
• Petitions coming from jails, complaining about the harassment, speedy trial, death in jail as a fundamental right,  etc.
• complaint against police for refusing to register a case,  bride-burning, etc.
• Petitions against the cruel acts on women, in particular, harassment of bribe, bribe-burning, murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.
• Petitions complaining harassment of persons belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribes
• Petitions pertaining to environmental issues

Merits & Demerits of PIL

Aspects of Public Interest Litigation

(a) Remedial in Nature: The remedial nature of PIL is from traditional Locus standi rules. It indirectly incorporated the principles envisaged in part IV of the Constitution of India into part III of the Constitution. the longing and emerging of part IV into part III of the Constitution had changed the procedural nature of the Indian law into the dynamic welfare of public interest. In Bandhu Mukti Morcha v/s Union of India [ 8]. Example of this change in the nature of the judiciary and for juristic revolution.

(b) Representative Standing : Representative standing can be viewed as an innovative standing exception which allows a third party (not an aggrieved party) to file a habeas corpus petition on the ground that if the aggrieved party cannot approach the court himself. And in this context, the Indian concept of PIL is much wider as compared to the American. 

(c) Citizen standing: This doctrine marks a great expansion of all the court’s rule, and hence being a protector of an individual right to the guardian of the rule of law.

(d) Non-adversarial Litigation: The Supreme Court in case People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India [9] , held that  point with all the emphasis on that public interest litigation is a totally distinct kind of litigation and unlike from the traditional litigation which is essentially of an adversary nature where there is a dispute between two parties, one making claim or seeking relief against the other (appellant) and that other opposing such claim or resisting such relief (respondent).

(e) Smoothing the strict rule of Locus Standi: The stern rule of locus standi has been cut short by way of  Representative standing, and Citizen standing which has explained earlier. In D.C.Wadhwa v. State of Bihar [10] . Supreme Court held that an applicant, a professor of political science who had done the relevant research and enormously interested in ensuring proper implementation of the constitutional provisions, challenged the practice which becomes the usage of the state of Bihar in proclaiming a number of ordinances without getting the approval of the legislature. The court held that the applicant as a member of the public has initiates  ‘sufficient interest’ to maintain a writ petition under Article 32.

The strict rule of locus standi has been moderate and a person who is acting in a bonafide (good intention)  and having sufficient interest in the proceeding of Public Interest Litigation will have a locus standi and he/she can approach the court to wipe out such violations of fundamental rights and genuine violation of statutory provisions, but not for personal gain or personal profit or political motive or for not any unlawful consideration. the court has to balance between two conflicting interests:

(i) nobody should be allowed to engage in wild and reckless allegations which result in harm in the character of others; and

(ii) nobody should be allowed to do public mischief and to avoid mischievous petitions which have no legal merit seeking strongly, for unlawful motives, is not justifiable by the executive and the legislature. It is unfortunate to note that on account of temporary proceedings initiated before the courts, number days are wasted, which could have been spent for the disposal of cases. Though the Supreme Court tries every possible effort in fostering and developing the concept of PIL and extending its arms of sympathy to the poor, ignorant, deserted or oppressed and the needy whose fundamental rights are infringed and violated and whose prayers go unnoticed, unrepresented and unheard.

(f) Epistolary Jurisdiction: The judicial activism played an important role and take the highest bonus when it’s ordered to wipe tears from some eyes. This jurisdiction is someway different from collective action. As anyone can send the petition in the form of a letter and postcard and it will be treated as a petition and there is no need to show Locus standi mere sufficient interest for public welfare with bonafide intention is enough. In order to that number of PIL cells were open all over India for providing the desk for help to the socially and weaker class of the society.

Factors that have contributed to the growth of PIL are as follows:

• The nature of the Indian Constitution. Unlike Britain, India has a written constitution and Part III ( which includes Fundamental Rights) and Part IV (Directive Principles of State Policy) provides a structure for maintaining relations between the state and its citizens and between citizens and among themselves.
• India has the most progressive social legislation to be found anywhere in the world either relating to bonded labour, minimum wages, environmental issues, etc. This has made it quite easier for the courts to force the executive and state institutions when it is not performing their duties in ensuring the rights of the poor as per the law of the land.
• Political, social and economic rights given in the Indian Constitution under Part IV are not justifiable, courts have creatively put these into fundamental rights thereby making them judicially enforceable. For example, the right to life in Article 21 has been enlarged to include the concept right to free legal aid assistance, the right to live with dignity, the right to education, the right to work, etc.
• In PIL cases where the complainant is not in a position to provide all the necessary evidence, either because socially economically weaker, courts have appointed commissions to collect relevant information or facts and present it before the Court.

The mechanism for protection of Human Rights through PIL

Features of PIL is the better mechanism of PIL for securing Human rights, the courts seek to safeguard human rights in the following ways:

1) By inventing a new regime of human rights and by making a wider concept of the fundamental right to equality, life, and personal liberty.  this results in, the right to a speedy trial, free legal aid, dignity, means and livelihood, education, medical care, clean environment, right again sexual harassment, solitary confinement, bondage and exploitation and so on emerge as human rights. These new re-conceptualized rights enforced through PIL.

2) Transformation towards a democratic state helps to assure justice. This is done by enlarging the scope of the traditional rule of locus standi. Any public or social action group can approach the court on behalf of the victim. Courts observation can be drawn even by writing a letter or sending a telegram. This is called epistolary jurisdiction.

3) By means of new kinds of relief under the court’s writ jurisdiction. For example, the court can award temporary compensation to the victims of governmental lawlessness. This contradicts the Anglo-Saxon model of adjudication. The grant of damages in PIL matters does not prevent the aggrieved person from bringing a civil suit for damages. In PIL cases the court can furnish any relief to the victims.

Landmark cases pertaining to PIL

• Prem Shukla v. Delhi Administration [11]. In this case, a prisoner sent a letter to the judge of the court, complaining about the forced fetter on him and demanded protection against humiliation. The court considered the PIL petition and orders necessary directions considering the calm rule of locus standi. 
• Dr.Upendra Baxi (I) vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & another [12] In this case, two law professors wrote a letter to the court and telling about the inhuman conditions in the Agra Protective Home for Women. The court considered the letter as a PIL and asked to improve the condition of the protective home for women. 
• Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan[13]. In this case, a woman, who was a social worker, was brutally raped while she was in the course of her employment and on behalf of her; an NGO filed a PIL in the Supreme Court for the protection of the rights of women at the workplace. The court accepted the petition and laid down the guidelines to safeguard the interest of women at the workplace and after that S exual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 was enacted based on the guidelines laid down by Supreme Court in this case. 
• M.C. Mehta vs. Union of India & Others[14]. In this case, a PIL was filed to prevent and protect the Taj Mahal from the harmful gases and toxic gases released by the industry near the Taj Mahal. The court accepted this petition as it was for the protection of the environment from exploitation and the court ordered to put a Ban on 299 industries from using coal and asked them to change over to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). 
• Hussainara Khatoon vs. State of Bihar [15] . This cause many people regarded as have the first PIL in India as well. In this case, the attention of the Court was on the inhuman condition of under-trials prisoners in the state of Bihar,  who had been in detention pending trial for periods far in superfluity of the maximum sentence for their offences. The Court not only ordered to make the right to a speedy trial regarding the main issue of the case but also passed the order of general release of about 40,000 under-trials who had undergone detention beyond such a time period.

Role of Judiciary  

In India, the Supreme Court makes the lead by allowing volunteer social activists to represent the interests of the poor and weaker sections of the society in judicial proceedings. By fattening the doctrine of locus standi in filing the petition and court introduced epistolary jurisdiction, which means to treat a letter written on behalf of an aggrieved person as a petition and examine the matter of the grievance.

In India judicial activism played a very important role. Generally speaking, when the Court takes up a matter for hearing or adjudication, it must be satisfied that the person who approaches the court has sufficient interest in that matter, It was made so in favour of social cause and the court accepts its validity make to set things right.  Undoubtedly, such litigation has provided each and every citizen of India access to all the courts of the country.

It has developed in a way to democratize the judicial process through radical changes. Moreover, the PIL has contributed to the rise of a form of judicial scrutiny for governmental institutions ranging from hospitals, prisons, covering issues of health, environment, safety, security, privacy and etc.

Judicial activism is a very frequent and common phenomenon for one and a half decades. Its foundation laid down in the year of 1986 by Justice P.N. Bhagwati who bring the tradition of hearing a PIL even on a postcard and telegram. Justice Bhagwati has clearly stated, “The Supreme Court has chosen to take up a proactive and newly conceptualized approach for the last two years, particularly, having regard to the peculiar socio-economic conditions prevailing in the country.

Hindi meaning of Public Interest Litigation

                                               जनहित याचिका 

Conclusion 

This article basically deals with the remedies which are mentioned in our Indian constitution under part III of articles 32. And in this article any person whose legal or fundamental rights violated he/she move to the Supreme Court and High Court for the enforcement of their Right under article 32 and 226 respectively. Both the articles empower the courts to issue the decree of writs.

Writs are formal legal documents bearing the order of the court including the nature of habeas corpus, mandamus, Quo warranto, certiorari, and prohibition. It is circumstantial depending on the facts of the case that which writs will be issued to resolve the problem, however High court has the discretionary power in this regard.

Judicial activism enables more people to access to court through PIL, it is a writ petition filing for the cause of public welfare. Anyone can file PIL as PIL is for the protection of human rights. Judiciary provides an opportunity through PIL to a weaker section or socially backward people to get justice in an inexpensive way, this leads to a democratized country and juristic radical revolution in context to social, political, and economic justice as mentioned in the basic structure of the constitution.

To know more please Click Here .

• 1951 AIR 270
• AIR 193 Sc 280
• AIR 1956 Sc 1740
• 1976 Ssc 521
• 1976 AIR 1455
• (1997)  10 SSC 549
• 1982 AIR 1473
•  1987 AIR 579
• 1980 AIR 1535
•  (1983) 2 SSC 508
•  (1997) 6 scc 241 
•  https://www.casemine.com/judgement/in/5609ad0ae4b01497114105b5.
• https://indiankanoon.org/doc/10671014/

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How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal

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• Published: 30 April 2020
• Volume 36 , pages 909–913, ( 2021 )

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• Clara Busse   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0178-1000 1 &
• Ella August   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5151-1036 1 , 2  

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Communicating research findings is an essential step in the research process. Often, peer-reviewed journals are the forum for such communication, yet many researchers are never taught how to write a publishable scientific paper. In this article, we explain the basic structure of a scientific paper and describe the information that should be included in each section. We also identify common pitfalls for each section and recommend strategies to avoid them. Further, we give advice about target journal selection and authorship. In the online resource 1 , we provide an example of a high-quality scientific paper, with annotations identifying the elements we describe in this article.

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Introduction

Writing a scientific paper is an important component of the research process, yet researchers often receive little formal training in scientific writing. This is especially true in low-resource settings. In this article, we explain why choosing a target journal is important, give advice about authorship, provide a basic structure for writing each section of a scientific paper, and describe common pitfalls and recommendations for each section. In the online resource 1 , we also include an annotated journal article that identifies the key elements and writing approaches that we detail here. Before you begin your research, make sure you have ethical clearance from all relevant ethical review boards.

Select a Target Journal Early in the Writing Process

We recommend that you select a “target journal” early in the writing process; a “target journal” is the journal to which you plan to submit your paper. Each journal has a set of core readers and you should tailor your writing to this readership. For example, if you plan to submit a manuscript about vaping during pregnancy to a pregnancy-focused journal, you will need to explain what vaping is because readers of this journal may not have a background in this topic. However, if you were to submit that same article to a tobacco journal, you would not need to provide as much background information about vaping.

Information about a journal’s core readership can be found on its website, usually in a section called “About this journal” or something similar. For example, the Journal of Cancer Education presents such information on the “Aims and Scope” page of its website, which can be found here: https://www.springer.com/journal/13187/aims-and-scope .

Peer reviewer guidelines from your target journal are an additional resource that can help you tailor your writing to the journal and provide additional advice about crafting an effective article [ 1 ]. These are not always available, but it is worth a quick web search to find out.

Identify Author Roles Early in the Process

Early in the writing process, identify authors, determine the order of authors, and discuss the responsibilities of each author. Standard author responsibilities have been identified by The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) [ 2 ]. To set clear expectations about each team member’s responsibilities and prevent errors in communication, we also suggest outlining more detailed roles, such as who will draft each section of the manuscript, write the abstract, submit the paper electronically, serve as corresponding author, and write the cover letter. It is best to formalize this agreement in writing after discussing it, circulating the document to the author team for approval. We suggest creating a title page on which all authors are listed in the agreed-upon order. It may be necessary to adjust authorship roles and order during the development of the paper. If a new author order is agreed upon, be sure to update the title page in the manuscript draft.

In the case where multiple papers will result from a single study, authors should discuss who will author each paper. Additionally, authors should agree on a deadline for each paper and the lead author should take responsibility for producing an initial draft by this deadline.

Structure of the Introduction Section

The introduction section should be approximately three to five paragraphs in length. Look at examples from your target journal to decide the appropriate length. This section should include the elements shown in Fig.  1 . Begin with a general context, narrowing to the specific focus of the paper. Include five main elements: why your research is important, what is already known about the topic, the “gap” or what is not yet known about the topic, why it is important to learn the new information that your research adds, and the specific research aim(s) that your paper addresses. Your research aim should address the gap you identified. Be sure to add enough background information to enable readers to understand your study. Table 1 provides common introduction section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

The main elements of the introduction section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Methods Section

The purpose of the methods section is twofold: to explain how the study was done in enough detail to enable its replication and to provide enough contextual detail to enable readers to understand and interpret the results. In general, the essential elements of a methods section are the following: a description of the setting and participants, the study design and timing, the recruitment and sampling, the data collection process, the dataset, the dependent and independent variables, the covariates, the analytic approach for each research objective, and the ethical approval. The hallmark of an exemplary methods section is the justification of why each method was used. Table 2 provides common methods section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Results Section

The focus of the results section should be associations, or lack thereof, rather than statistical tests. Two considerations should guide your writing here. First, the results should present answers to each part of the research aim. Second, return to the methods section to ensure that the analysis and variables for each result have been explained.

Begin the results section by describing the number of participants in the final sample and details such as the number who were approached to participate, the proportion who were eligible and who enrolled, and the number of participants who dropped out. The next part of the results should describe the participant characteristics. After that, you may organize your results by the aim or by putting the most exciting results first. Do not forget to report your non-significant associations. These are still findings.

Tables and figures capture the reader’s attention and efficiently communicate your main findings [ 3 ]. Each table and figure should have a clear message and should complement, rather than repeat, the text. Tables and figures should communicate all salient details necessary for a reader to understand the findings without consulting the text. Include information on comparisons and tests, as well as information about the sample and timing of the study in the title, legend, or in a footnote. Note that figures are often more visually interesting than tables, so if it is feasible to make a figure, make a figure. To avoid confusing the reader, either avoid abbreviations in tables and figures, or define them in a footnote. Note that there should not be citations in the results section and you should not interpret results here. Table 3 provides common results section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Discussion Section

Opposite the introduction section, the discussion should take the form of a right-side-up triangle beginning with interpretation of your results and moving to general implications (Fig.  2 ). This section typically begins with a restatement of the main findings, which can usually be accomplished with a few carefully-crafted sentences.

Major elements of the discussion section of an original research article. Often, the elements overlap

Next, interpret the meaning or explain the significance of your results, lifting the reader’s gaze from the study’s specific findings to more general applications. Then, compare these study findings with other research. Are these findings in agreement or disagreement with those from other studies? Does this study impart additional nuance to well-accepted theories? Situate your findings within the broader context of scientific literature, then explain the pathways or mechanisms that might give rise to, or explain, the results.

Journals vary in their approach to strengths and limitations sections: some are embedded paragraphs within the discussion section, while some mandate separate section headings. Keep in mind that every study has strengths and limitations. Candidly reporting yours helps readers to correctly interpret your research findings.

The next element of the discussion is a summary of the potential impacts and applications of the research. Should these results be used to optimally design an intervention? Does the work have implications for clinical protocols or public policy? These considerations will help the reader to further grasp the possible impacts of the presented work.

Finally, the discussion should conclude with specific suggestions for future work. Here, you have an opportunity to illuminate specific gaps in the literature that compel further study. Avoid the phrase “future research is necessary” because the recommendation is too general to be helpful to readers. Instead, provide substantive and specific recommendations for future studies. Table 4 provides common discussion section pitfalls and recommendations for addressing them.

Follow the Journal’s Author Guidelines

After you select a target journal, identify the journal’s author guidelines to guide the formatting of your manuscript and references. Author guidelines will often (but not always) include instructions for titles, cover letters, and other components of a manuscript submission. Read the guidelines carefully. If you do not follow the guidelines, your article will be sent back to you.

Finally, do not submit your paper to more than one journal at a time. Even if this is not explicitly stated in the author guidelines of your target journal, it is considered inappropriate and unprofessional.

Your title should invite readers to continue reading beyond the first page [ 4 , 5 ]. It should be informative and interesting. Consider describing the independent and dependent variables, the population and setting, the study design, the timing, and even the main result in your title. Because the focus of the paper can change as you write and revise, we recommend you wait until you have finished writing your paper before composing the title.

Be sure that the title is useful for potential readers searching for your topic. The keywords you select should complement those in your title to maximize the likelihood that a researcher will find your paper through a database search. Avoid using abbreviations in your title unless they are very well known, such as SNP, because it is more likely that someone will use a complete word rather than an abbreviation as a search term to help readers find your paper.

After you have written a complete draft, use the checklist (Fig. 3 ) below to guide your revisions and editing. Additional resources are available on writing the abstract and citing references [ 5 ]. When you feel that your work is ready, ask a trusted colleague or two to read the work and provide informal feedback. The box below provides a checklist that summarizes the key points offered in this article.

Checklist for manuscript quality

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Acknowledgments

Ella August is grateful to the Sustainable Sciences Institute for mentoring her in training researchers on writing and publishing their research.

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Busse, C., August, E. How to Write and Publish a Research Paper for a Peer-Reviewed Journal. J Canc Educ 36 , 909–913 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01751-z

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How to Write a Research Paper | A Beginner's Guide

A research paper is a piece of academic writing that provides analysis, interpretation, and argument based on in-depth independent research.

Research papers are similar to academic essays , but they are usually longer and more detailed assignments, designed to assess not only your writing skills but also your skills in scholarly research. Writing a research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic, engage with a variety of sources, and make an original contribution to the debate.

This step-by-step guide takes you through the entire writing process, from understanding your assignment to proofreading your final draft.

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Table of contents

Understand the assignment, choose a research paper topic, conduct preliminary research, develop a thesis statement, create a research paper outline, write a first draft of the research paper, write the introduction, write a compelling body of text, write the conclusion, the second draft, the revision process, research paper checklist, free lecture slides.

Completing a research paper successfully means accomplishing the specific tasks set out for you. Before you start, make sure you thoroughly understanding the assignment task sheet:

• Read it carefully, looking for anything confusing you might need to clarify with your professor.
• Identify the assignment goal, deadline, length specifications, formatting, and submission method.
• Make a bulleted list of the key points, then go back and cross completed items off as you’re writing.

Carefully consider your timeframe and word limit: be realistic, and plan enough time to research, write, and edit.

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There are many ways to generate an idea for a research paper, from brainstorming with pen and paper to talking it through with a fellow student or professor.

You can try free writing, which involves taking a broad topic and writing continuously for two or three minutes to identify absolutely anything relevant that could be interesting.

You can also gain inspiration from other research. The discussion or recommendations sections of research papers often include ideas for other specific topics that require further examination.

Once you have a broad subject area, narrow it down to choose a topic that interests you, m eets the criteria of your assignment, and i s possible to research. Aim for ideas that are both original and specific:

• A paper following the chronology of World War II would not be original or specific enough.
• A paper on the experience of Danish citizens living close to the German border during World War II would be specific and could be original enough.

Note any discussions that seem important to the topic, and try to find an issue that you can focus your paper around. Use a variety of sources , including journals, books, and reliable websites, to ensure you do not miss anything glaring.

Do not only verify the ideas you have in mind, but look for sources that contradict your point of view.

• Is there anything people seem to overlook in the sources you research?
• Are there any heated debates you can address?
• Do you have a unique take on your topic?
• Have there been some recent developments that build on the extant research?

In this stage, you might find it helpful to formulate some research questions to help guide you. To write research questions, try to finish the following sentence: “I want to know how/what/why…”

A thesis statement is a statement of your central argument — it establishes the purpose and position of your paper. If you started with a research question, the thesis statement should answer it. It should also show what evidence and reasoning you’ll use to support that answer.

The thesis statement should be concise, contentious, and coherent. That means it should briefly summarize your argument in a sentence or two, make a claim that requires further evidence or analysis, and make a coherent point that relates to every part of the paper.

You will probably revise and refine the thesis statement as you do more research, but it can serve as a guide throughout the writing process. Every paragraph should aim to support and develop this central claim.

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Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
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See an example

A research paper outline is essentially a list of the key topics, arguments, and evidence you want to include, divided into sections with headings so that you know roughly what the paper will look like before you start writing.

A structure outline can help make the writing process much more efficient, so it’s worth dedicating some time to create one.

Your first draft won’t be perfect — you can polish later on. Your priorities at this stage are as follows:

• Maintaining forward momentum — write now, perfect later.
• Paying attention to clear organization and logical ordering of paragraphs and sentences, which will help when you come to the second draft.
• Expressing your ideas as clearly as possible, so you know what you were trying to say when you come back to the text.

You do not need to start by writing the introduction. Begin where it feels most natural for you — some prefer to finish the most difficult sections first, while others choose to start with the easiest part. If you created an outline, use it as a map while you work.

Do not delete large sections of text. If you begin to dislike something you have written or find it doesn’t quite fit, move it to a different document, but don’t lose it completely — you never know if it might come in useful later.

Paragraph structure

Paragraphs are the basic building blocks of research papers. Each one should focus on a single claim or idea that helps to establish the overall argument or purpose of the paper.

Example paragraph

George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” has had an enduring impact on thought about the relationship between politics and language. This impact is particularly obvious in light of the various critical review articles that have recently referenced the essay. For example, consider Mark Falcoff’s 2009 article in The National Review Online, “The Perversion of Language; or, Orwell Revisited,” in which he analyzes several common words (“activist,” “civil-rights leader,” “diversity,” and more). Falcoff’s close analysis of the ambiguity built into political language intentionally mirrors Orwell’s own point-by-point analysis of the political language of his day. Even 63 years after its publication, Orwell’s essay is emulated by contemporary thinkers.

Citing sources

It’s also important to keep track of citations at this stage to avoid accidental plagiarism . Each time you use a source, make sure to take note of where the information came from.

You can use our free citation generators to automatically create citations and save your reference list as you go.

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The research paper introduction should address three questions: What, why, and how? After finishing the introduction, the reader should know what the paper is about, why it is worth reading, and how you’ll build your arguments.

What? Be specific about the topic of the paper, introduce the background, and define key terms or concepts.

Why? This is the most important, but also the most difficult, part of the introduction. Try to provide brief answers to the following questions: What new material or insight are you offering? What important issues does your essay help define or answer?

How? To let the reader know what to expect from the rest of the paper, the introduction should include a “map” of what will be discussed, briefly presenting the key elements of the paper in chronological order.

The major struggle faced by most writers is how to organize the information presented in the paper, which is one reason an outline is so useful. However, remember that the outline is only a guide and, when writing, you can be flexible with the order in which the information and arguments are presented.

One way to stay on track is to use your thesis statement and topic sentences . Check:

• topic sentences against the thesis statement;
• topic sentences against each other, for similarities and logical ordering;
• and each sentence against the topic sentence of that paragraph.

Be aware of paragraphs that seem to cover the same things. If two paragraphs discuss something similar, they must approach that topic in different ways. Aim to create smooth transitions between sentences, paragraphs, and sections.

The research paper conclusion is designed to help your reader out of the paper’s argument, giving them a sense of finality.

Trace the course of the paper, emphasizing how it all comes together to prove your thesis statement. Give the paper a sense of finality by making sure the reader understands how you’ve settled the issues raised in the introduction.

You might also discuss the more general consequences of the argument, outline what the paper offers to future students of the topic, and suggest any questions the paper’s argument raises but cannot or does not try to answer.

You should not :

• Offer new arguments or essential information
• Take up any more space than necessary
• Begin with stock phrases that signal you are ending the paper (e.g. “In conclusion”)

There are four main considerations when it comes to the second draft.

• Check how your vision of the paper lines up with the first draft and, more importantly, that your paper still answers the assignment.
• Identify any assumptions that might require (more substantial) justification, keeping your reader’s perspective foremost in mind. Remove these points if you cannot substantiate them further.
• Be open to rearranging your ideas. Check whether any sections feel out of place and whether your ideas could be better organized.
• If you find that old ideas do not fit as well as you anticipated, you should cut them out or condense them. You might also find that new and well-suited ideas occurred to you during the writing of the first draft — now is the time to make them part of the paper.

The goal during the revision and proofreading process is to ensure you have completed all the necessary tasks and that the paper is as well-articulated as possible. You can speed up the proofreading process by using the AI proofreader .

Global concerns

• Confirm that your paper completes every task specified in your assignment sheet.
• Check for logical organization and flow of paragraphs.
• Check paragraphs against the introduction and thesis statement.

Fine-grained details

Check the content of each paragraph, making sure that:

• each sentence helps support the topic sentence.
• no unnecessary or irrelevant information is present.
• all technical terms your audience might not know are identified.

Next, think about sentence structure , grammatical errors, and formatting . Check that you have correctly used transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas. Look for typos, cut unnecessary words, and check for consistency in aspects such as heading formatting and spellings .

Finally, you need to make sure your paper is correctly formatted according to the rules of the citation style you are using. For example, you might need to include an MLA heading  or create an APA title page .

Scribbr’s professional editors can help with the revision process with our award-winning proofreading services.

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Checklist: Research paper

I have followed all instructions in the assignment sheet.

My introduction presents my topic in an engaging way and provides necessary background information.

My introduction presents a clear, focused research problem and/or thesis statement .

My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and (if relevant) section headings .

Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or thesis statement.

I have used appropriate transitions  to clarify the connections between sections, paragraphs, and sentences.

My conclusion provides a concise answer to the research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been supported.

My conclusion shows how my research has contributed to knowledge or understanding of my topic.

My conclusion does not present any new points or information essential to my argument.

I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to ideas or information from a source.

I have included a reference list at the end of my paper, consistently formatted according to a specific citation style .

I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any feedback from my professor or supervisor.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers, headers, spacing, etc.).

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• Published: 31 August 2024

Knowledge mapping and evolution of research on older adults’ technology acceptance: a bibliometric study from 2013 to 2023

• Xianru Shang   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0000-8906-3216 1 ,
• Zijian Liu 1 ,
• Chen Gong 1 ,
• Zhigang Hu 1 ,
• Yuexuan Wu 1 &
• Chengliang Wang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2208-3508 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1115 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Science, technology and society

The rapid expansion of information technology and the intensification of population aging are two prominent features of contemporary societal development. Investigating older adults’ acceptance and use of technology is key to facilitating their integration into an information-driven society. Given this context, the technology acceptance of older adults has emerged as a prioritized research topic, attracting widespread attention in the academic community. However, existing research remains fragmented and lacks a systematic framework. To address this gap, we employed bibliometric methods, utilizing the Web of Science Core Collection to conduct a comprehensive review of literature on older adults’ technology acceptance from 2013 to 2023. Utilizing VOSviewer and CiteSpace for data assessment and visualization, we created knowledge mappings of research on older adults’ technology acceptance. Our study employed multidimensional methods such as co-occurrence analysis, clustering, and burst analysis to: (1) reveal research dynamics, key journals, and domains in this field; (2) identify leading countries, their collaborative networks, and core research institutions and authors; (3) recognize the foundational knowledge system centered on theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, and research methods and evaluation, uncovering seminal literature and observing a shift from early theoretical and influential factor analyses to empirical studies focusing on individual factors and emerging technologies; (4) moreover, current research hotspots are primarily in the areas of factors influencing technology adoption, human-robot interaction experiences, mobile health management, and aging-in-place technology, highlighting the evolutionary context and quality distribution of research themes. Finally, we recommend that future research should deeply explore improvements in theoretical models, long-term usage, and user experience evaluation. Overall, this study presents a clear framework of existing research in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, providing an important reference for future theoretical exploration and innovative applications.

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Introduction.

In contemporary society, the rapid development of information technology has been intricately intertwined with the intensifying trend of population aging. According to the latest United Nations forecast, by 2050, the global population aged 65 and above is expected to reach 1.6 billion, representing about 16% of the total global population (UN 2023 ). Given the significant challenges of global aging, there is increasing evidence that emerging technologies have significant potential to maintain health and independence for older adults in their home and healthcare environments (Barnard et al. 2013 ; Soar 2010 ; Vancea and Solé-Casals 2016 ). This includes, but is not limited to, enhancing residential safety with smart home technologies (Touqeer et al. 2021 ; Wang et al. 2022 ), improving living independence through wearable technologies (Perez et al. 2023 ), and increasing medical accessibility via telehealth services (Kruse et al. 2020 ). Technological innovations are redefining the lifestyles of older adults, encouraging a shift from passive to active participation (González et al. 2012 ; Mostaghel 2016 ). Nevertheless, the effective application and dissemination of technology still depends on user acceptance and usage intentions (Naseri et al. 2023 ; Wang et al. 2023a ; Xia et al. 2024 ; Yu et al. 2023 ). Particularly, older adults face numerous challenges in accepting and using new technologies. These challenges include not only physical and cognitive limitations but also a lack of technological experience, along with the influences of social and economic factors (Valk et al. 2018 ; Wilson et al. 2021 ).

User acceptance of technology is a significant focus within information systems (IS) research (Dai et al. 2024 ), with several models developed to explain and predict user behavior towards technology usage, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis 1989 ), TAM2, TAM3, and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh et al. 2003 ). Older adults, as a group with unique needs, exhibit different behavioral patterns during technology acceptance than other user groups, and these uniquenesses include changes in cognitive abilities, as well as motivations, attitudes, and perceptions of the use of new technologies (Chen and Chan 2011 ). The continual expansion of technology introduces considerable challenges for older adults, rendering the understanding of their technology acceptance a research priority. Thus, conducting in-depth research into older adults’ acceptance of technology is critically important for enhancing their integration into the information society and improving their quality of life through technological advancements.

Reviewing relevant literature to identify research gaps helps further solidify the theoretical foundation of the research topic. However, many existing literature reviews primarily focus on the factors influencing older adults’ acceptance or intentions to use technology. For instance, Ma et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of older adults’ behavioral intentions to use technology; Liu et al. ( 2022 ) categorized key variables in studies of older adults’ technology acceptance, noting a shift in focus towards social and emotional factors; Yap et al. ( 2022 ) identified seven categories of antecedents affecting older adults’ use of technology from an analysis of 26 articles, including technological, psychological, social, personal, cost, behavioral, and environmental factors; Schroeder et al. ( 2023 ) extracted 119 influencing factors from 59 articles and further categorized these into six themes covering demographics, health status, and emotional awareness. Additionally, some studies focus on the application of specific technologies, such as Ferguson et al. ( 2021 ), who explored barriers and facilitators to older adults using wearable devices for heart monitoring, and He et al. ( 2022 ) and Baer et al. ( 2022 ), who each conducted in-depth investigations into the acceptance of social assistive robots and mobile nutrition and fitness apps, respectively. In summary, current literature reviews on older adults’ technology acceptance exhibit certain limitations. Due to the interdisciplinary nature and complex knowledge structure of this field, traditional literature reviews often rely on qualitative analysis, based on literature analysis and periodic summaries, which lack sufficient objectivity and comprehensiveness. Additionally, systematic research is relatively limited, lacking a macroscopic description of the research trajectory from a holistic perspective. Over the past decade, research on older adults’ technology acceptance has experienced rapid growth, with a significant increase in literature, necessitating the adoption of new methods to review and examine the developmental trends in this field (Chen 2006 ; Van Eck and Waltman 2010 ). Bibliometric analysis, as an effective quantitative research method, analyzes published literature through visualization, offering a viable approach to extracting patterns and insights from a large volume of papers, and has been widely applied in numerous scientific research fields (Achuthan et al. 2023 ; Liu and Duffy 2023 ). Therefore, this study will employ bibliometric methods to systematically analyze research articles related to older adults’ technology acceptance published in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2013 to 2023, aiming to understand the core issues and evolutionary trends in the field, and to provide valuable references for future related research. Specifically, this study aims to explore and answer the following questions:

RQ1: What are the research dynamics in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance over the past decade? What are the main academic journals and fields that publish studies related to older adults’ technology acceptance?

RQ2: How is the productivity in older adults’ technology acceptance research distributed among countries, institutions, and authors?

RQ3: What are the knowledge base and seminal literature in older adults’ technology acceptance research? How has the research theme progressed?

RQ4: What are the current hot topics and their evolutionary trajectories in older adults’ technology acceptance research? How is the quality of research distributed?

Methodology and materials

Research method.

In recent years, bibliometrics has become one of the crucial methods for analyzing literature reviews and is widely used in disciplinary and industrial intelligence analysis (Jing et al. 2023 ; Lin and Yu 2024a ; Wang et al. 2024a ; Xu et al. 2021 ). Bibliometric software facilitates the visualization analysis of extensive literature data, intuitively displaying the network relationships and evolutionary processes between knowledge units, and revealing the underlying knowledge structure and potential information (Chen et al. 2024 ; López-Robles et al. 2018 ; Wang et al. 2024c ). This method provides new insights into the current status and trends of specific research areas, along with quantitative evidence, thereby enhancing the objectivity and scientific validity of the research conclusions (Chen et al. 2023 ; Geng et al. 2024 ). VOSviewer and CiteSpace are two widely used bibliometric software tools in academia (Pan et al. 2018 ), recognized for their robust functionalities based on the JAVA platform. Although each has its unique features, combining these two software tools effectively constructs mapping relationships between literature knowledge units and clearly displays the macrostructure of the knowledge domains. Particularly, VOSviewer, with its excellent graphical representation capabilities, serves as an ideal tool for handling large datasets and precisely identifying the focal points and hotspots of research topics. Therefore, this study utilizes VOSviewer (version 1.6.19) and CiteSpace (version 6.1.R6), combined with in-depth literature analysis, to comprehensively examine and interpret the research theme of older adults’ technology acceptance through an integrated application of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Data source

Web of Science is a comprehensively recognized database in academia, featuring literature that has undergone rigorous peer review and editorial scrutiny (Lin and Yu 2024b ; Mongeon and Paul-Hus 2016 ; Pranckutė 2021 ). This study utilizes the Web of Science Core Collection as its data source, specifically including three major citation indices: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). These indices encompass high-quality research literature in the fields of science, social sciences, and arts and humanities, ensuring the comprehensiveness and reliability of the data. We combined “older adults” with “technology acceptance” through thematic search, with the specific search strategy being: TS = (elder OR elderly OR aging OR ageing OR senile OR senior OR old people OR “older adult*”) AND TS = (“technology acceptance” OR “user acceptance” OR “consumer acceptance”). The time span of literature search is from 2013 to 2023, with the types limited to “Article” and “Review” and the language to “English”. Additionally, the search was completed by October 27, 2023, to avoid data discrepancies caused by database updates. The initial search yielded 764 journal articles. Given that searches often retrieve articles that are superficially relevant but actually non-compliant, manual screening post-search was essential to ensure the relevance of the literature (Chen et al. 2024 ). Through manual screening, articles significantly deviating from the research theme were eliminated and rigorously reviewed. Ultimately, this study obtained 500 valid sample articles from the Web of Science Core Collection. The complete PRISMA screening process is illustrated in Fig. 1 .

Presentation of the data culling process in detail.

Data standardization

Raw data exported from databases often contain multiple expressions of the same terminology (Nguyen and Hallinger 2020 ). To ensure the accuracy and consistency of data, it is necessary to standardize the raw data (Strotmann and Zhao 2012 ). This study follows the data standardization process proposed by Taskin and Al ( 2019 ), mainly executing the following operations:

(1) Standardization of author and institution names is conducted to address different name expressions for the same author. For instance, “Chan, Alan Hoi Shou” and “Chan, Alan H. S.” are considered the same author, and distinct authors with the same name are differentiated by adding identifiers. Diverse forms of institutional names are unified to address variations caused by name changes or abbreviations, such as standardizing “FRANKFURT UNIV APPL SCI” and “Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences,” as well as “Chinese University of Hong Kong” and “University of Hong Kong” to consistent names.

(2) Different expressions of journal names are unified. For example, “International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction” and “Int J Hum Comput Interact” are standardized to a single name. This ensures consistency in journal names and prevents misclassification of literature due to differing journal names. Additionally, it involves checking if the journals have undergone name changes in the past decade to prevent any impact on the analysis due to such changes.

(3) Keywords data are cleansed by removing words that do not directly pertain to specific research content (e.g., people, review), merging synonyms (e.g., “UX” and “User Experience,” “aging-in-place” and “aging in place”), and standardizing plural forms of keywords (e.g., “assistive technologies” and “assistive technology,” “social robots” and “social robot”). This reduces redundant information in knowledge mapping.

Bibliometric results and analysis

Distribution power (rq1), literature descriptive statistical analysis.

Table 1 presents a detailed descriptive statistical overview of the literature in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. After deduplication using the CiteSpace software, this study confirmed a valid sample size of 500 articles. Authored by 1839 researchers, the documents encompass 792 research institutions across 54 countries and are published in 217 different academic journals. As of the search cutoff date, these articles have accumulated 13,829 citations, with an annual average of 1156 citations, and an average of 27.66 citations per article. The h-index, a composite metric of quantity and quality of scientific output (Kamrani et al. 2021 ), reached 60 in this study.

Trends in publications and disciplinary distribution

The number of publications and citations are significant indicators of the research field’s development, reflecting its continuity, attention, and impact (Ale Ebrahim et al. 2014 ). The ranking of annual publications and citations in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance studies is presented chronologically in Fig. 2A . The figure shows a clear upward trend in the amount of literature in this field. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of publications increased slowly and decreased in 2018. However, in 2019, the number of publications increased rapidly to 52 and reached a peak of 108 in 2022, which is 6.75 times higher than in 2013. In 2022, the frequency of document citations reached its highest point with 3466 citations, reflecting the widespread recognition and citation of research in this field. Moreover, the curve of the annual number of publications fits a quadratic function, with a goodness-of-fit R 2 of 0.9661, indicating that the number of future publications is expected to increase even more rapidly.

A Trends in trends in annual publications and citations (2013–2023). B Overlay analysis of the distribution of discipline fields.

Figure 2B shows that research on older adults’ technology acceptance involves the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge. According to Web of Science Categories, these 500 articles are distributed across 85 different disciplines. We have tabulated the top ten disciplines by publication volume (Table 2 ), which include Medical Informatics (75 articles, 15.00%), Health Care Sciences & Services (71 articles, 14.20%), Gerontology (61 articles, 12.20%), Public Environmental & Occupational Health (57 articles, 11.40%), and Geriatrics & Gerontology (52 articles, 10.40%), among others. The high output in these disciplines reflects the concentrated global academic interest in this comprehensive research topic. Additionally, interdisciplinary research approaches provide diverse perspectives and a solid theoretical foundation for studies on older adults’ technology acceptance, also paving the way for new research directions.

Knowledge flow analysis

A dual-map overlay is a CiteSpace map superimposed on top of a base map, which shows the interrelationships between journals in different domains, representing the publication and citation activities in each domain (Chen and Leydesdorff 2014 ). The overlay map reveals the link between the citing domain (on the left side) and the cited domain (on the right side), reflecting the knowledge flow of the discipline at the journal level (Leydesdorff and Rafols 2012 ). We utilize the in-built Z-score algorithm of the software to cluster the graph, as shown in Fig. 3 .

The left side shows the citing journal, and the right side shows the cited journal.

Figure 3 shows the distribution of citing journals clusters for older adults’ technology acceptance on the left side, while the right side refers to the main cited journals clusters. Two knowledge flow citation trajectories were obtained; they are presented by the color of the cited regions, and the thickness of these trajectories is proportional to the Z-score scaled frequency of citations (Chen et al. 2014 ). Within the cited regions, the most popular fields with the most records covered are “HEALTH, NURSING, MEDICINE” and “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, SOCIAL”, and the elliptical aspect ratio of these two fields stands out. Fields have prominent elliptical aspect ratios, highlighting their significant influence on older adults’ technology acceptance research. Additionally, the major citation trajectories originate in these two areas and progress to the frontier research area of “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, HEALTH”. It is worth noting that the citation trajectory from “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, SOCIAL” has a significant Z-value (z = 6.81), emphasizing the significance and impact of this development path. In the future, “MATHEMATICS, SYSTEMS, MATHEMATICAL”, “MOLECULAR, BIOLOGY, IMMUNOLOGY”, and “NEUROLOGY, SPORTS, OPHTHALMOLOGY” may become emerging fields. The fields of “MEDICINE, MEDICAL, CLINICAL” may be emerging areas of cutting-edge research.

Main research journals analysis

Table 3 provides statistics for the top ten journals by publication volume in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Together, these journals have published 137 articles, accounting for 27.40% of the total publications, indicating that there is no highly concentrated core group of journals in this field, with publications being relatively dispersed. Notably, Computers in Human Behavior , Journal of Medical Internet Research , and International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction each lead with 15 publications. In terms of citation metrics, International Journal of Medical Informatics and Computers in Human Behavior stand out significantly, with the former accumulating a total of 1,904 citations, averaging 211.56 citations per article, and the latter totaling 1,449 citations, with an average of 96.60 citations per article. These figures emphasize the academic authority and widespread impact of these journals within the research field.

Research power (RQ2)

Countries and collaborations analysis.

The analysis revealed the global research pattern for country distribution and collaboration (Chen et al. 2019 ). Figure 4A shows the network of national collaborations on older adults’ technology acceptance research. The size of the bubbles represents the amount of publications in each country, while the thickness of the connecting lines expresses the closeness of the collaboration among countries. Generally, this research subject has received extensive international attention, with China and the USA publishing far more than any other countries. China has established notable research collaborations with the USA, UK and Malaysia in this field, while other countries have collaborations, but the closeness is relatively low and scattered. Figure 4B shows the annual publication volume dynamics of the top ten countries in terms of total publications. Since 2017, China has consistently increased its annual publications, while the USA has remained relatively stable. In 2019, the volume of publications in each country increased significantly, this was largely due to the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to increased reliance on information technology among the elderly for medical consultations, online socialization, and health management (Sinha et al. 2021 ). This phenomenon has led to research advances in technology acceptance among older adults in various countries. Table 4 shows that the top ten countries account for 93.20% of the total cumulative number of publications, with each country having published more than 20 papers. Among these ten countries, all of them except China are developed countries, indicating that the research field of older adults’ technology acceptance has received general attention from developed countries. Currently, China and the USA were the leading countries in terms of publications with 111 and 104 respectively, accounting for 22.20% and 20.80%. The UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands also made significant contributions. The USA and China ranked first and second in terms of the number of citations, while the Netherlands had the highest average citations, indicating the high impact and quality of its research. The UK has shown outstanding performance in international cooperation, while the USA highlights its significant academic influence in this field with the highest h-index value.

A National collaboration network. B Annual volume of publications in the top 10 countries.

Institutions and authors analysis

Analyzing the number of publications and citations can reveal an institution’s or author’s research strength and influence in a particular research area (Kwiek 2021 ). Tables 5 and 6 show the statistics of the institutions and authors whose publication counts are in the top ten, respectively. As shown in Table 5 , higher education institutions hold the main position in this research field. Among the top ten institutions, City University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong from China lead with 14 and 9 publications, respectively. City University of Hong Kong has the highest h-index, highlighting its significant influence in the field. It is worth noting that Tilburg University in the Netherlands is not among the top five in terms of publications, but the high average citation count (130.14) of its literature demonstrates the high quality of its research.

After analyzing the authors’ output using Price’s Law (Redner 1998 ), the highest number of publications among the authors counted ( n  = 10) defines a publication threshold of 3 for core authors in this research area. As a result of quantitative screening, a total of 63 core authors were identified. Table 6 shows that Chen from Zhejiang University, China, Ziefle from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and Rogers from Macquarie University, Australia, were the top three authors in terms of the number of publications, with 10, 9, and 8 articles, respectively. In terms of average citation rate, Peek and Wouters, both scholars from the Netherlands, have significantly higher rates than other scholars, with 183.2 and 152.67 respectively. This suggests that their research is of high quality and widely recognized. Additionally, Chen and Rogers have high h-indices in this field.

Knowledge base and theme progress (RQ3)

Research knowledge base.

Co-citation relationships occur when two documents are cited together (Zhang and Zhu 2022 ). Co-citation mapping uses references as nodes to represent the knowledge base of a subject area (Min et al. 2021). Figure 5A illustrates co-occurrence mapping in older adults’ technology acceptance research, where larger nodes signify higher co-citation frequencies. Co-citation cluster analysis can be used to explore knowledge structure and research boundaries (Hota et al. 2020 ; Shiau et al. 2023 ). The co-citation clustering mapping of older adults’ technology acceptance research literature (Fig. 5B ) shows that the Q value of the clustering result is 0.8129 (>0.3), and the average value of the weight S is 0.9391 (>0.7), indicating that the clusters are uniformly distributed with a significant and credible structure. This further proves that the boundaries of the research field are clear and there is significant differentiation in the field. The figure features 18 cluster labels, each associated with thematic color blocks corresponding to different time slices. Highlighted emerging research themes include #2 Smart Home Technology, #7 Social Live, and #10 Customer Service. Furthermore, the clustering labels extracted are primarily classified into three categories: theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, research methods and evaluation, as detailed in Table 7 .

A Co-citation analysis of references. B Clustering network analysis of references.

Seminal literature analysis

The top ten nodes in terms of co-citation frequency were selected for further analysis. Table 8 displays the corresponding node information. Studies were categorized into four main groups based on content analysis. (1) Research focusing on specific technology usage by older adults includes studies by Peek et al. ( 2014 ), Ma et al. ( 2016 ), Hoque and Sorwar ( 2017 ), and Li et al. ( 2019 ), who investigated the factors influencing the use of e-technology, smartphones, mHealth, and smart wearables, respectively. (2) Concerning the development of theoretical models of technology acceptance, Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) introduced the Senior Technology Acceptance Model (STAM), and Macedo ( 2017 ) analyzed the predictive power of UTAUT2 in explaining older adults’ intentional behaviors and information technology usage. (3) In exploring older adults’ information technology adoption and behavior, Lee and Coughlin ( 2015 ) emphasized that the adoption of technology by older adults is a multifactorial process that includes performance, price, value, usability, affordability, accessibility, technical support, social support, emotion, independence, experience, and confidence. Yusif et al. ( 2016 ) conducted a literature review examining the key barriers affecting older adults’ adoption of assistive technology, including factors such as privacy, trust, functionality/added value, cost, and stigma. (4) From the perspective of research into older adults’ technology acceptance, Mitzner et al. ( 2019 ) assessed the long-term usage of computer systems designed for the elderly, whereas Guner and Acarturk ( 2020 ) compared information technology usage and acceptance between older and younger adults. The breadth and prevalence of this literature make it a vital reference for researchers in the field, also providing new perspectives and inspiration for future research directions.

Research thematic progress

Burst citation is a node of literature that guides the sudden change in dosage, which usually represents a prominent development or major change in a particular field, with innovative and forward-looking qualities. By analyzing the emergent literature, it is often easy to understand the dynamics of the subject area, mapping the emerging thematic change (Chen et al. 2022 ). Figure 6 shows the burst citation mapping in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance research, with burst citations represented by red nodes (Fig. 6A ). For the ten papers with the highest burst intensity (Fig. 6B ), this study will conduct further analysis in conjunction with literature review.

A Burst detection of co-citation. B The top 10 references with the strongest citation bursts.

As shown in Fig. 6 , Mitzner et al. ( 2010 ) broke the stereotype that older adults are fearful of technology, found that they actually have positive attitudes toward technology, and emphasized the centrality of ease of use and usefulness in the process of technology acceptance. This finding provides an important foundation for subsequent research. During the same period, Wagner et al. ( 2010 ) conducted theory-deepening and applied research on technology acceptance among older adults. The research focused on older adults’ interactions with computers from the perspective of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). This expanded the understanding of technology acceptance, particularly regarding the relationship between behavior, environment, and other SCT elements. In addition, Pan and Jordan-Marsh ( 2010 ) extended the TAM to examine the interactions among predictors of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, and convenience conditions when older adults use the Internet, taking into account the moderating roles of gender and age. Heerink et al. ( 2010 ) adapted and extended the UTAUT, constructed a technology acceptance model specifically designed for older users’ acceptance of assistive social agents, and validated it using controlled experiments and longitudinal data, explaining intention to use by combining functional assessment and social interaction variables.

Then the research theme shifted to an in-depth analysis of the factors influencing technology acceptance among older adults. Two papers with high burst strengths emerged during this period: Peek et al. ( 2014 ) (Strength = 12.04), Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) (Strength = 9.81). Through a systematic literature review and empirical study, Peek STM and Chen K, among others, identified multidimensional factors that influence older adults’ technology acceptance. Peek et al. ( 2014 ) analyzed literature on the acceptance of in-home care technology among older adults and identified six factors that influence their acceptance: concerns about technology, expected benefits, technology needs, technology alternatives, social influences, and older adult characteristics, with a focus on differences between pre- and post-implementation factors. Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) constructed the STAM by administering a questionnaire to 1012 older adults and adding eight important factors, including technology anxiety, self-efficacy, cognitive ability, and physical function, based on the TAM. This enriches the theoretical foundation of the field. In addition, Braun ( 2013 ) highlighted the role of perceived usefulness, trust in social networks, and frequency of Internet use in older adults’ use of social networks, while ease of use and social pressure were not significant influences. These findings contribute to the study of older adults’ technology acceptance within specific technology application domains.

Recent research has focused on empirical studies of personal factors and emerging technologies. Ma et al. ( 2016 ) identified key personal factors affecting smartphone acceptance among older adults through structured questionnaires and face-to-face interviews with 120 participants. The study found that cost, self-satisfaction, and convenience were important factors influencing perceived usefulness and ease of use. This study offers empirical evidence to comprehend the main factors that drive smartphone acceptance among Chinese older adults. Additionally, Yusif et al. ( 2016 ) presented an overview of the obstacles that hinder older adults’ acceptance of assistive technologies, focusing on privacy, trust, and functionality.

In summary, research on older adults’ technology acceptance has shifted from early theoretical deepening and analysis of influencing factors to empirical studies in the areas of personal factors and emerging technologies, which have greatly enriched the theoretical basis of older adults’ technology acceptance and provided practical guidance for the design of emerging technology products.

Research hotspots, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution (RQ4)

Core keywords analysis.

Keywords concise the main idea and core of the literature, and are a refined summary of the research content (Huang et al. 2021 ). In CiteSpace, nodes with a centrality value greater than 0.1 are considered to be critical nodes. Analyzing keywords with high frequency and centrality helps to visualize the hot topics in the research field (Park et al. 2018 ). The merged keywords were imported into CiteSpace, and the top 10 keywords were counted and sorted by frequency and centrality respectively, as shown in Table 9 . The results show that the keyword “TAM” has the highest frequency (92), followed by “UTAUT” (24), which reflects that the in-depth study of the existing technology acceptance model and its theoretical expansion occupy a central position in research related to older adults’ technology acceptance. Furthermore, the terms ‘assistive technology’ and ‘virtual reality’ are both high-frequency and high-centrality terms (frequency = 17, centrality = 0.10), indicating that the research on assistive technology and virtual reality for older adults is the focus of current academic attention.

Research hotspots analysis

Using VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence analysis organizes keywords into groups or clusters based on their intrinsic connections and frequencies, clearly highlighting the research field’s hot topics. The connectivity among keywords reveals correlations between different topics. To ensure accuracy, the analysis only considered the authors’ keywords. Subsequently, the keywords were filtered by setting the keyword frequency to 5 to obtain the keyword clustering map of the research on older adults’ technology acceptance research keyword clustering mapping (Fig. 7 ), combined with the keyword co-occurrence clustering network (Fig. 7A ) and the corresponding density situation (Fig. 7B ) to make a detailed analysis of the following four groups of clustered themes.

A Co-occurrence clustering network. B Keyword density.

Cluster #1—Research on the factors influencing technology adoption among older adults is a prominent topic, covering age, gender, self-efficacy, attitude, and and intention to use (Berkowsky et al. 2017 ; Wang et al. 2017 ). It also examined older adults’ attitudes towards and acceptance of digital health technologies (Ahmad and Mozelius, 2022 ). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly impacting older adults’ technology attitudes and usage, has underscored the study’s importance and urgency. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct in-depth studies on how older adults accept, adopt, and effectively use new technologies, to address their needs and help them overcome the digital divide within digital inclusion. This will improve their quality of life and healthcare experiences.

Cluster #2—Research focuses on how older adults interact with assistive technologies, especially assistive robots and health monitoring devices, emphasizing trust, usability, and user experience as crucial factors (Halim et al. 2022 ). Moreover, health monitoring technologies effectively track and manage health issues common in older adults, like dementia and mild cognitive impairment (Lussier et al. 2018 ; Piau et al. 2019 ). Interactive exercise games and virtual reality have been deployed to encourage more physical and cognitive engagement among older adults (Campo-Prieto et al. 2021 ). Personalized and innovative technology significantly enhances older adults’ participation, improving their health and well-being.

Cluster #3—Optimizing health management for older adults using mobile technology. With the development of mobile health (mHealth) and health information technology, mobile applications, smartphones, and smart wearable devices have become effective tools to help older users better manage chronic conditions, conduct real-time health monitoring, and even receive telehealth services (Dupuis and Tsotsos 2018 ; Olmedo-Aguirre et al. 2022 ; Kim et al. 2014 ). Additionally, these technologies can mitigate the problem of healthcare resource inequality, especially in developing countries. Older adults’ acceptance and use of these technologies are significantly influenced by their behavioral intentions, motivational factors, and self-management skills. These internal motivational factors, along with external factors, jointly affect older adults’ performance in health management and quality of life.

Cluster #4—Research on technology-assisted home care for older adults is gaining popularity. Environmentally assisted living enhances older adults’ independence and comfort at home, offering essential support and security. This has a crucial impact on promoting healthy aging (Friesen et al. 2016 ; Wahlroos et al. 2023 ). The smart home is a core application in this field, providing a range of solutions that facilitate independent living for the elderly in a highly integrated and user-friendly manner. This fulfills different dimensions of living and health needs (Majumder et al. 2017 ). Moreover, eHealth offers accurate and personalized health management and healthcare services for older adults (Delmastro et al. 2018 ), ensuring their needs are met at home. Research in this field often employs qualitative methods and structural equation modeling to fully understand older adults’ needs and experiences at home and analyze factors influencing technology adoption.

Evolutionary trends analysis

To gain a deeper understanding of the evolutionary trends in research hotspots within the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, we conducted a statistical analysis of the average appearance times of keywords, using CiteSpace to generate the time-zone evolution mapping (Fig. 8 ) and burst keywords. The time-zone mapping visually displays the evolution of keywords over time, intuitively reflecting the frequency and initial appearance of keywords in research, commonly used to identify trends in research topics (Jing et al. 2024a ; Kumar et al. 2021 ). Table 10 lists the top 15 keywords by burst strength, with the red sections indicating high-frequency citations and their burst strength in specific years. These burst keywords reveal the focus and trends of research themes over different periods (Kleinberg 2002 ). Combining insights from the time-zone mapping and burst keywords provides more objective and accurate research insights (Wang et al. 2023b ).

Reflecting the frequency and time of first appearance of keywords in the study.

An integrated analysis of Fig. 8 and Table 10 shows that early research on older adults’ technology acceptance primarily focused on factors such as perceived usefulness, ease of use, and attitudes towards information technology, including their use of computers and the internet (Pan and Jordan-Marsh 2010 ), as well as differences in technology use between older adults and other age groups (Guner and Acarturk 2020 ). Subsequently, the research focus expanded to improving the quality of life for older adults, exploring how technology can optimize health management and enhance the possibility of independent living, emphasizing the significant role of technology in improving the quality of life for the elderly. With ongoing technological advancements, recent research has shifted towards areas such as “virtual reality,” “telehealth,” and “human-robot interaction,” with a focus on the user experience of older adults (Halim et al. 2022 ). The appearance of keywords such as “physical activity” and “exercise” highlights the value of technology in promoting physical activity and health among older adults. This phase of research tends to make cutting-edge technology genuinely serve the practical needs of older adults, achieving its widespread application in daily life. Additionally, research has focused on expanding and quantifying theoretical models of older adults’ technology acceptance, involving keywords such as “perceived risk”, “validation” and “UTAUT”.

In summary, from 2013 to 2023, the field of older adults’ technology acceptance has evolved from initial explorations of influencing factors, to comprehensive enhancements in quality of life and health management, and further to the application and deepening of theoretical models and cutting-edge technologies. This research not only reflects the diversity and complexity of the field but also demonstrates a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of older adults’ interactions with technology across various life scenarios and needs.

Research quality distribution

To reveal the distribution of research quality in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, a strategic diagram analysis is employed to calculate and illustrate the internal development and interrelationships among various research themes (Xie et al. 2020 ). The strategic diagram uses Centrality as the X-axis and Density as the Y-axis to divide into four quadrants, where the X-axis represents the strength of the connection between thematic clusters and other themes, with higher values indicating a central position in the research field; the Y-axis indicates the level of development within the thematic clusters, with higher values denoting a more mature and widely recognized field (Li and Zhou 2020 ).

Through cluster analysis and manual verification, this study categorized 61 core keywords (Frequency ≥5) into 11 thematic clusters. Subsequently, based on the keywords covered by each thematic cluster, the research themes and their directions for each cluster were summarized (Table 11 ), and the centrality and density coordinates for each cluster were precisely calculated (Table 12 ). Finally, a strategic diagram of the older adults’ technology acceptance research field was constructed (Fig. 9 ). Based on the distribution of thematic clusters across the quadrants in the strategic diagram, the structure and developmental trends of the field were interpreted.

Classification and visualization of theme clusters based on density and centrality.

As illustrated in Fig. 9 , (1) the theme clusters of #3 Usage Experience and #4 Assisted Living Technology are in the first quadrant, characterized by high centrality and density. Their internal cohesion and close links with other themes indicate their mature development, systematic research content or directions have been formed, and they have a significant influence on other themes. These themes play a central role in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance and have promising prospects. (2) The theme clusters of #6 Smart Devices, #9 Theoretical Models, and #10 Mobile Health Applications are in the second quadrant, with higher density but lower centrality. These themes have strong internal connections but weaker external links, indicating that these three themes have received widespread attention from researchers and have been the subject of related research, but more as self-contained systems and exhibit independence. Therefore, future research should further explore in-depth cooperation and cross-application with other themes. (3) The theme clusters of #7 Human-Robot Interaction, #8 Characteristics of the Elderly, and #11 Research Methods are in the third quadrant, with lower centrality and density. These themes are loosely connected internally and have weak links with others, indicating their developmental immaturity. Compared to other topics, they belong to the lower attention edge and niche themes, and there is a need for further investigation. (4) The theme clusters of #1 Digital Healthcare Technology, #2 Psychological Factors, and #5 Socio-Cultural Factors are located in the fourth quadrant, with high centrality but low density. Although closely associated with other research themes, the internal cohesion within these clusters is relatively weak. This suggests that while these themes are closely linked to other research areas, their own development remains underdeveloped, indicating a core immaturity. Nevertheless, these themes are crucial within the research domain of elderly technology acceptance and possess significant potential for future exploration.

Discussion on distribution power (RQ1)

Over the past decade, academic interest and influence in the area of older adults’ technology acceptance have significantly increased. This trend is evidenced by a quantitative analysis of publication and citation volumes, particularly noticeable in 2019 and 2022, where there was a substantial rise in both metrics. The rise is closely linked to the widespread adoption of emerging technologies such as smart homes, wearable devices, and telemedicine among older adults. While these technologies have enhanced their quality of life, they also pose numerous challenges, sparking extensive research into their acceptance, usage behaviors, and influencing factors among the older adults (Pirzada et al. 2022 ; Garcia Reyes et al. 2023 ). Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in technology demand among older adults, especially in areas like medical consultation, online socialization, and health management, further highlighting the importance and challenges of technology. Health risks and social isolation have compelled older adults to rely on technology for daily activities, accelerating its adoption and application within this demographic. This phenomenon has made technology acceptance a critical issue, driving societal and academic focus on the study of technology acceptance among older adults.

The flow of knowledge at the level of high-output disciplines and journals, along with the primary publishing outlets, indicates the highly interdisciplinary nature of research into older adults’ technology acceptance. This reflects the complexity and breadth of issues related to older adults’ technology acceptance, necessitating the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and approaches. Currently, research is primarily focused on medical health and human-computer interaction, demonstrating academic interest in improving health and quality of life for older adults and addressing the urgent needs related to their interactions with technology. In the field of medical health, research aims to provide advanced and innovative healthcare technologies and services to meet the challenges of an aging population while improving the quality of life for older adults (Abdi et al. 2020 ; Wilson et al. 2021 ). In the field of human-computer interaction, research is focused on developing smarter and more user-friendly interaction models to meet the needs of older adults in the digital age, enabling them to actively participate in social activities and enjoy a higher quality of life (Sayago, 2019 ). These studies are crucial for addressing the challenges faced by aging societies, providing increased support and opportunities for the health, welfare, and social participation of older adults.

Discussion on research power (RQ2)

This study analyzes leading countries and collaboration networks, core institutions and authors, revealing the global research landscape and distribution of research strength in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, and presents quantitative data on global research trends. From the analysis of country distribution and collaborations, China and the USA hold dominant positions in this field, with developed countries like the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands also excelling in international cooperation and research influence. The significant investment in technological research and the focus on the technological needs of older adults by many developed countries reflect their rapidly aging societies, policy support, and resource allocation.

China is the only developing country that has become a major contributor in this field, indicating its growing research capabilities and high priority given to aging societies and technological innovation. Additionally, China has close collaborations with countries such as USA, the UK, and Malaysia, driven not only by technological research needs but also by shared challenges and complementarities in aging issues among these nations. For instance, the UK has extensive experience in social welfare and aging research, providing valuable theoretical guidance and practical experience. International collaborations, aimed at addressing the challenges of aging, integrate the strengths of various countries, advancing in-depth and widespread development in the research of technology acceptance among older adults.

At the institutional and author level, City University of Hong Kong leads in publication volume, with research teams led by Chan and Chen demonstrating significant academic activity and contributions. Their research primarily focuses on older adults’ acceptance and usage behaviors of various technologies, including smartphones, smart wearables, and social robots (Chen et al. 2015 ; Li et al. 2019 ; Ma et al. 2016 ). These studies, targeting specific needs and product characteristics of older adults, have developed new models of technology acceptance based on existing frameworks, enhancing the integration of these technologies into their daily lives and laying a foundation for further advancements in the field. Although Tilburg University has a smaller publication output, it holds significant influence in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Particularly, the high citation rate of Peek’s studies highlights their excellence in research. Peek extensively explored older adults’ acceptance and usage of home care technologies, revealing the complexity and dynamics of their technology use behaviors. His research spans from identifying systemic influencing factors (Peek et al. 2014 ; Peek et al. 2016 ), emphasizing familial impacts (Luijkx et al. 2015 ), to constructing comprehensive models (Peek et al. 2017 ), and examining the dynamics of long-term usage (Peek et al. 2019 ), fully reflecting the evolving technology landscape and the changing needs of older adults. Additionally, the ongoing contributions of researchers like Ziefle, Rogers, and Wouters in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance demonstrate their research influence and leadership. These researchers have significantly enriched the knowledge base in this area with their diverse perspectives. For instance, Ziefle has uncovered the complex attitudes of older adults towards technology usage, especially the trade-offs between privacy and security, and how different types of activities affect their privacy needs (Maidhof et al. 2023 ; Mujirishvili et al. 2023 ; Schomakers and Ziefle 2023 ; Wilkowska et al. 2022 ), reflecting a deep exploration and ongoing innovation in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance.

Discussion on knowledge base and thematic progress (RQ3)

Through co-citation analysis and systematic review of seminal literature, this study reveals the knowledge foundation and thematic progress in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. Co-citation networks and cluster analyses illustrate the structural themes of the research, delineating the differentiation and boundaries within this field. Additionally, burst detection analysis offers a valuable perspective for understanding the thematic evolution in the field of technology acceptance among older adults. The development and innovation of theoretical models are foundational to this research. Researchers enhance the explanatory power of constructed models by deepening and expanding existing technology acceptance theories to address theoretical limitations. For instance, Heerink et al. ( 2010 ) modified and expanded the UTAUT model by integrating functional assessment and social interaction variables to create the almere model. This model significantly enhances the ability to explain the intentions of older users in utilizing assistive social agents and improves the explanation of actual usage behaviors. Additionally, Chen and Chan ( 2014 ) extended the TAM to include age-related health and capability features of older adults, creating the STAM, which substantially improves predictions of older adults’ technology usage behaviors. Personal attributes, health and capability features, and facilitating conditions have a direct impact on technology acceptance. These factors more effectively predict older adults’ technology usage behaviors than traditional attitudinal factors.

With the advancement of technology and the application of emerging technologies, new research topics have emerged, increasingly focusing on older adults’ acceptance and use of these technologies. Prior to this, the study by Mitzner et al. ( 2010 ) challenged the stereotype of older adults’ conservative attitudes towards technology, highlighting the central roles of usability and usefulness in the technology acceptance process. This discovery laid an important foundation for subsequent research. Research fields such as “smart home technology,” “social life,” and “customer service” are emerging, indicating a shift in focus towards the practical and social applications of technology in older adults’ lives. Research not only focuses on the technology itself but also on how these technologies integrate into older adults’ daily lives and how they can improve the quality of life through technology. For instance, studies such as those by Ma et al. ( 2016 ), Hoque and Sorwar ( 2017 ), and Li et al. ( 2019 ) have explored factors influencing older adults’ use of smartphones, mHealth, and smart wearable devices.

Furthermore, the diversification of research methodologies and innovation in evaluation techniques, such as the use of mixed methods, structural equation modeling (SEM), and neural network (NN) approaches, have enhanced the rigor and reliability of the findings, enabling more precise identification of the factors and mechanisms influencing technology acceptance. Talukder et al. ( 2020 ) employed an effective multimethodological strategy by integrating SEM and NN to leverage the complementary strengths of both approaches, thus overcoming their individual limitations and more accurately analyzing and predicting older adults’ acceptance of wearable health technologies (WHT). SEM is utilized to assess the determinants’ impact on the adoption of WHT, while neural network models validate SEM outcomes and predict the significance of key determinants. This combined approach not only boosts the models’ reliability and explanatory power but also provides a nuanced understanding of the motivations and barriers behind older adults’ acceptance of WHT, offering deep research insights.

Overall, co-citation analysis of the literature in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance has uncovered deeper theoretical modeling and empirical studies on emerging technologies, while emphasizing the importance of research methodological and evaluation innovations in understanding complex social science issues. These findings are crucial for guiding the design and marketing strategies of future technology products, especially in the rapidly growing market of older adults.

Discussion on research hotspots and evolutionary trends (RQ4)

By analyzing core keywords, we can gain deep insights into the hot topics, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution of research in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance. The frequent occurrence of the keywords “TAM” and “UTAUT” indicates that the applicability and theoretical extension of existing technology acceptance models among older adults remain a focal point in academia. This phenomenon underscores the enduring influence of the studies by Davis ( 1989 ) and Venkatesh et al. ( 2003 ), whose models provide a robust theoretical framework for explaining and predicting older adults’ acceptance and usage of emerging technologies. With the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies, these theoretical models have incorporated new variables such as perceived risk, trust, and privacy issues (Amin et al. 2024 ; Chen et al. 2024 ; Jing et al. 2024b ; Seibert et al. 2021 ; Wang et al. 2024b ), advancing the theoretical depth and empirical research in this field.

Keyword co-occurrence cluster analysis has revealed multiple research hotspots in the field, including factors influencing technology adoption, interactive experiences between older adults and assistive technologies, the application of mobile health technology in health management, and technology-assisted home care. These studies primarily focus on enhancing the quality of life and health management of older adults through emerging technologies, particularly in the areas of ambient assisted living, smart health monitoring, and intelligent medical care. In these domains, the role of AI technology is increasingly significant (Qian et al. 2021 ; Ho 2020 ). With the evolution of next-generation information technologies, AI is increasingly integrated into elder care systems, offering intelligent, efficient, and personalized service solutions by analyzing the lifestyles and health conditions of older adults. This integration aims to enhance older adults’ quality of life in aspects such as health monitoring and alerts, rehabilitation assistance, daily health management, and emotional support (Lee et al. 2023 ). A survey indicates that 83% of older adults prefer AI-driven solutions when selecting smart products, demonstrating the increasing acceptance of AI in elder care (Zhao and Li 2024 ). Integrating AI into elder care presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in terms of user acceptance, trust, and long-term usage effects, which warrant further exploration (Mhlanga 2023 ). These studies will help better understand the profound impact of AI technology on the lifestyles of older adults and provide critical references for optimizing AI-driven elder care services.

The Time-zone evolution mapping and burst keyword analysis further reveal the evolutionary trends of research hotspots. Early studies focused on basic technology acceptance models and user perceptions, later expanding to include quality of life and health management. In recent years, research has increasingly focused on cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality, telehealth, and human-robot interaction, with a concurrent emphasis on the user experience of older adults. This evolutionary process demonstrates a deepening shift from theoretical models to practical applications, underscoring the significant role of technology in enhancing the quality of life for older adults. Furthermore, the strategic coordinate mapping analysis clearly demonstrates the development and mutual influence of different research themes. High centrality and density in the themes of Usage Experience and Assisted Living Technology indicate their mature research status and significant impact on other themes. The themes of Smart Devices, Theoretical Models, and Mobile Health Applications demonstrate self-contained research trends. The themes of Human-Robot Interaction, Characteristics of the Elderly, and Research Methods are not yet mature, but they hold potential for development. Themes of Digital Healthcare Technology, Psychological Factors, and Socio-Cultural Factors are closely related to other themes, displaying core immaturity but significant potential.

In summary, the research hotspots in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance are diverse and dynamic, demonstrating the academic community’s profound understanding of how older adults interact with technology across various life contexts and needs. Under the influence of AI and big data, research should continue to focus on the application of emerging technologies among older adults, exploring in depth how they adapt to and effectively use these technologies. This not only enhances the quality of life and healthcare experiences for older adults but also drives ongoing innovation and development in this field.

Research agenda

Based on the above research findings, to further understand and promote technology acceptance and usage among older adults, we recommend future studies focus on refining theoretical models, exploring long-term usage, and assessing user experience in the following detailed aspects:

Refinement and validation of specific technology acceptance models for older adults: Future research should focus on developing and validating technology acceptance models based on individual characteristics, particularly considering variations in technology acceptance among older adults across different educational levels and cultural backgrounds. This includes factors such as age, gender, educational background, and cultural differences. Additionally, research should examine how well specific technologies, such as wearable devices and mobile health applications, meet the needs of older adults. Building on existing theoretical models, this research should integrate insights from multiple disciplines such as psychology, sociology, design, and engineering through interdisciplinary collaboration to create more accurate and comprehensive models, which should then be validated in relevant contexts.

Deepening the exploration of the relationship between long-term technology use and quality of life among older adults: The acceptance and use of technology by users is a complex and dynamic process (Seuwou et al. 2016 ). Existing research predominantly focuses on older adults’ initial acceptance or short-term use of new technologies; however, the impact of long-term use on their quality of life and health is more significant. Future research should focus on the evolution of older adults’ experiences and needs during long-term technology usage, and the enduring effects of technology on their social interactions, mental health, and life satisfaction. Through longitudinal studies and qualitative analysis, this research reveals the specific needs and challenges of older adults in long-term technology use, providing a basis for developing technologies and strategies that better meet their requirements. This understanding aids in comprehensively assessing the impact of technology on older adults’ quality of life and guiding the optimization and improvement of technological products.

Evaluating the Importance of User Experience in Research on Older Adults’ Technology Acceptance: Understanding the mechanisms of information technology acceptance and use is central to human-computer interaction research. Although technology acceptance models and user experience models differ in objectives, they share many potential intersections. Technology acceptance research focuses on structured prediction and assessment, while user experience research concentrates on interpreting design impacts and new frameworks. Integrating user experience to assess older adults’ acceptance of technology products and systems is crucial (Codfrey et al. 2022 ; Wang et al. 2019 ), particularly for older users, where specific product designs should emphasize practicality and usability (Fisk et al. 2020 ). Researchers need to explore innovative age-appropriate design methods to enhance older adults’ usage experience. This includes studying older users’ actual usage preferences and behaviors, optimizing user interfaces, and interaction designs. Integrating feedback from older adults to tailor products to their needs can further promote their acceptance and continued use of technology products.

Conclusions

This study conducted a systematic review of the literature on older adults’ technology acceptance over the past decade through bibliometric analysis, focusing on the distribution power, research power, knowledge base and theme progress, research hotspots, evolutionary trends, and quality distribution. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this study has reached the following conclusions:

Technology acceptance among older adults has become a hot topic in the international academic community, involving the integration of knowledge across multiple disciplines, including Medical Informatics, Health Care Sciences Services, and Ergonomics. In terms of journals, “PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATION, HEALTH” represents a leading field, with key publications including Computers in Human Behavior , Journal of Medical Internet Research , and International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction . These journals possess significant academic authority and extensive influence in the field.

Research on technology acceptance among older adults is particularly active in developed countries, with China and USA publishing significantly more than other nations. The Netherlands leads in high average citation rates, indicating the depth and impact of its research. Meanwhile, the UK stands out in terms of international collaboration. At the institutional level, City University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong in China are in leading positions. Tilburg University in the Netherlands demonstrates exceptional research quality through its high average citation count. At the author level, Chen from China has the highest number of publications, while Peek from the Netherlands has the highest average citation count.

Co-citation analysis of references indicates that the knowledge base in this field is divided into three main categories: theoretical model deepening, emerging technology applications, and research methods and evaluation. Seminal literature focuses on four areas: specific technology use by older adults, expansion of theoretical models of technology acceptance, information technology adoption behavior, and research perspectives. Research themes have evolved from initial theoretical deepening and analysis of influencing factors to empirical studies on individual factors and emerging technologies.

Keyword analysis indicates that TAM and UTAUT are the most frequently occurring terms, while “assistive technology” and “virtual reality” are focal points with high frequency and centrality. Keyword clustering analysis reveals that research hotspots are concentrated on the influencing factors of technology adoption, human-robot interaction experiences, mobile health management, and technology for aging in place. Time-zone evolution mapping and burst keyword analysis have revealed the research evolution from preliminary exploration of influencing factors, to enhancements in quality of life and health management, and onto advanced technology applications and deepening of theoretical models. Furthermore, analysis of research quality distribution indicates that Usage Experience and Assisted Living Technology have become core topics, while Smart Devices, Theoretical Models, and Mobile Health Applications point towards future research directions.

Through this study, we have systematically reviewed the dynamics, core issues, and evolutionary trends in the field of older adults’ technology acceptance, constructing a comprehensive Knowledge Mapping of the domain and presenting a clear framework of existing research. This not only lays the foundation for subsequent theoretical discussions and innovative applications in the field but also provides an important reference for relevant scholars.

Limitations

To our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis concerning technology acceptance among older adults, and we adhered strictly to bibliometric standards throughout our research. However, this study relies on the Web of Science Core Collection, and while its authority and breadth are widely recognized, this choice may have missed relevant literature published in other significant databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, potentially overlooking some critical academic contributions. Moreover, given that our analysis was confined to literature in English, it may not reflect studies published in other languages, somewhat limiting the global representativeness of our data sample.

It is noteworthy that with the rapid development of AI technology, its increasingly widespread application in elderly care services is significantly transforming traditional care models. AI is profoundly altering the lifestyles of the elderly, from health monitoring and smart diagnostics to intelligent home systems and personalized care, significantly enhancing their quality of life and health care standards. The potential for AI technology within the elderly population is immense, and research in this area is rapidly expanding. However, due to the restrictive nature of the search terms used in this study, it did not fully cover research in this critical area, particularly in addressing key issues such as trust, privacy, and ethics.

Consequently, future research should not only expand data sources, incorporating multilingual and multidatabase literature, but also particularly focus on exploring older adults’ acceptance of AI technology and its applications, in order to construct a more comprehensive academic landscape of older adults’ technology acceptance, thereby enriching and extending the knowledge system and academic trends in this field.

Data availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the Dataverse repository: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/6K0GJH .

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This research was supported by the Social Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province in China (Grant No. 2023J014).

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Xianru Shang, Zijian Liu, Chen Gong, Zhigang Hu & Yuexuan Wu

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Conceptualization, XS, YW, CW; methodology, XS, ZL, CG, CW; software, XS, CG, YW; writing-original draft preparation, XS, CW; writing-review and editing, XS, CG, ZH, CW; supervision, ZL, ZH, CW; project administration, ZL, ZH, CW; funding acquisition, XS, CG. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors have read and approved the re-submission of the manuscript.

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Shang, X., Liu, Z., Gong, C. et al. Knowledge mapping and evolution of research on older adults’ technology acceptance: a bibliometric study from 2013 to 2023. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1115 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03658-2

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03658-2

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