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An overview of forestry journals in the period 2006–2010 as basis for ascertaining research trends

Scientometrics volume 98, pages 1331–1346 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Articles published between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010 in 42 forestry journals (N = 16,258) were collected and, depending on their content and key words, classified in one of 22 sub-disciplines. Among the forestry sub-disciplines, the following are currently dominant: Mensuration and inventories, Forest management, Plant ecophysiology and Wood science. PCA ordination was used to visualize grouping tendencies and data separation. For each component, a number of characteristics contributed to the total variation, and significant importance was attached to those with the highest loading factors. The first component included Mensuration and inventories, Plant ecophysiology, Vegetation ecology and Forest management, as the highest loading factors. The second components comprised Sociological aspects, Plant ecophysiology, Wood science and Forest management. The most pronounced increase trend over the five-year period is noted for Genetics and breeding, Vegetation ecology, Fuels and energy, while the most pronounced decrease trend is visible in Forest health, Forest fire, Sociological aspects and Forest products. PCA suggests the existence of three groups of journals: the first group comprises Forest Ecology and Management and Canadian Journal of Forest Research, the dominating two, the second group comprises Annals of Forest Science, Plant Ecology, Tree Physiology and Trees-Structure and Function, while the rest of the journals belong to the third group. The Canadian Journal of Forest Research is the most diversified, while Tree Genetics and Genomes, Silvae Genetica and Tree-ring Research are narrowly specialized.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 173011). We would like to thank Ms. Milica Stefanović for creating the computer software program for our research (Windows application, Key Words Analyzer, KWA). We are grateful to the anonymous referee for his/her thorough review and highly appreciate the comments and suggestions, which significantly improved the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade, Boulevard despota Stefana 142, 11060, Belgrade, Serbia

    Srđan Bojović, Rada Matić, Zorica Popović, Miroslava Smiljanić, Milena Stefanović & Vera Vidaković

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  1. Srđan Bojović
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  2. Rada Matić
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  3. Zorica Popović
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  4. Miroslava Smiljanić
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  5. Milena Stefanović
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Correspondence to Srđan Bojović.

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Bojović, S., Matić, R., Popović, Z. et al. An overview of forestry journals in the period 2006–2010 as basis for ascertaining research trends. Scientometrics 98, 1331–1346 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1171-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1171-9

Keywords

  • Forestry journals
  • Current state and research trends
  • Article evaluation
  • Forestry sub-disciplines
  • Principal-component analyses