Advertisement

Scientometrics

, Volume 90, Issue 2, pp 361–381 | Cite as

References, authors, journals and scientific disciplines underlying the sustainable development literature: a citation analysis

  • Nuno Quental
  • Júlia M. Lourenço
Article
First Online:

Abstract

This paper identifies the main references, authors and journals influencing the sustainable development literature. The task is accomplished by means of a citation analysis based on the records of ISI Web of Science. We found that the core of sustainability thinking is framed by a pattern of landmark studies published around every 5 years. Only 380 publications have been cited at least ten times. References with the highest influence are those with a global dimension and large diffusion, such as Brundtland Commission’s “Our common future” (1987) and classics such as Meadows’ et al. “Limits to growth” (1972). The list of the most influential references over the period 1960–2005 is dominated by contributions from economics (particularly ecological economics) and environmental science, but includes many other disciplines such as urban planning, political sciences and sociology. References are also made to policy documents such as “Agenda 21”, one of the main outcomes of the Rio Summit in 1992. In analyzing citation trends, we found that classics, because of their high rates of citations per year, seem to have a more enduring and stable influence.

Keywords

Sustainable development Sustainability science Ecological economics Bibliometric assessment Citation analysis 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

This paper was written as part of a PhD research. The authors would like to credit the financial support provided by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (the Portuguese research foundation) under scholarship SFRH/BD/18588/2004 and project PTDC/ECM/73069/2006.

References

  1. Bornmann, L., & Daniel, H. D. (2008). What do citation counts measure? A review of studies on citing behavior. Journal of Documentation, 64(1), 45–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Clark, W. C., & Dickson, N. M. (2003). Sustainability science: The emerging research program. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(14), 8059–8061.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Costanza, R., Stern, D., Fisher, B., He, L. N., & Ma, C. B. (2004). Influential publications in ecological economics: A citation analysis. Ecological Economics, 50(3–4), 261–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Garfield, E. (1972). Citation analysis as a tool in journal evaluation. Science, 178(60), 471–479.Google Scholar
  5. Glänzel, W., & Moed, H. F. (2002). Journal impact measures in bibliometric research. Scientometrics, 53(2), 171–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. ISI. (2008). Web of Science [Online]. Retrieved March 21, 2008 from http://apps.isiknowledge.com.
  7. Kajikawa, Y., Ohno, J., Takeda, Y., Matsushima, K., & Komiyama, H. (2007). Creating an academic landscape of sustainability science: An analysis of the citation network. Sustainability Science, 2(2), 221–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Kates, R., Clark, W. C., Robert Corell, J., Hall, M., Jaeger, C. C., Lowe, I., et al. (2001). Sustainability science. Science, 292(5517), 641–642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Ma, C. B., & Stern, D. I. (2006). Environmental and ecological economics: A citation analysis. Ecological Economics, 58, 491–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. MacRoberts, M. H., & MacRoberts, B. R. (1996). Problems of citation analysis. Scientometrics, 36(3), 435–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Quental, N., Lourenço, J. M., & Nunes da Silva, F. (2011a). Sustainability: Characteristics and scientific roots. Environment Development and Sustainability, 13(2), 257–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Quental, N., Lourenço, J. M., & Nunes da Silva, F. (2011b). Sustainable development policy: Goals, targets and political cycles. Sustainable Development, 19(1), 15–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Schubert, A., & Lang, I. (2005). The literature aftermath of the Brundtland report ‘Our Common Future’. A Scientometric study based on citations in science and social science journals. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 7(1), 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. United Nations Center for Human Settlements. (2008). State of the world’s cities: 2008/2009: Harmonious cities. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
  15. United Nations Population Fund. (2007). Situação da população mundial 2007: desencadeando o potencial do crescimento urbano. New York: United Nations Population Fund.Google Scholar
  16. Vieira, E., & Gomes, J. (2010). Citations to scientific articles: Its distribution and dependence on the article features. Journal of Informetrics, 4(1), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. WCED. (1987). Our common future.  : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  18. Wikipedia (2011). Fields of science [Online]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_of_science.
  19. Wilson, E. O. (1998). Consilience: The unity of knowledge. New York: Abacus.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Civil EngineeringUniversity of MinhoGuimarãesPortugal

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options