Ethics in Healthcare Marketing: A Bibliometric Analysis

The purpose of this article is to identify how the main themes and theoretical foundations regarding ethics in healthcare marketing have evolved. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of the specialized literature, considering the spatial and temporal dimensions of the works analyzed. To conduct the study, data were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection using the search terms S=("healthcare"), TS= ("ethical marketing"), and TS=("marketing") for the period 2010–2025, limited to works published in English. The final set included 500 articles with complete metadata, such as authors, keywords, affiliations, and cited references, following the screening of titles and abstracts. The analyses were conducted in VOSviewer using the following tools: (1) a citation network of references to identify foundational and recently influential works; (2) a bibliographic coupling at the country level to describe international connectivity; (3) WoS descriptive indicators on disciplinary categories, document types, and index coverage; and (4) co-occurrence maps of terms and keywords overlaid on the average year of publication to highlight conceptual structure and trends. The findings suggest a complex conceptual framework focused on marketing, ethics, and trust, based on the idea that trust serves as a bridge between consumers’ purchasing decisions or actions and effective marketing communication. As a result of the development of artificial intelligence and digitalization, in recent years there has been a shift in focus toward governance-related concerns, such as privacy, security, accountability, and informed consent. With concentrated contributions in Europe and recent expansion in Asia/the Middle East, the US serves as a major global hub. In terms of patient vulnerability, manipulation, and data control in digital marketing, the study identifies future directions.