A Scientometric Analysis

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A Scientometric Analysis Tropical Ecology 59(3): 431–443, 2018 ISSN 0564-3295 © International Society for Tropical Ecology www.tropecol.com Global research trends in ‘Ecology’: A scientometric analysis 1* 2 ANWESHA BORTHAKUR & PARDEEP SINGH 1Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi-110067, India 2Department of Environmental Studies, PGDAV College, University of Delhi, New Delhi-110065, India Abstract: Ecological research has observed a near constant growth during the past few decades. Considering the significance and diversity of ecological research with regard to both its vastness and specificity, this paper is an attempt to map out the research activities in ‘ecology’ through a ‘scientometric analysis’ of the world research outputs. The aim was to identify and document the historical and current research trajectories in the subject. We recognize the fact that in the absence of an in-depth analysis of the trends in research, it is utterly possible that some areas of research get more than adequate attention from the global research and policy community while some equally important areas of the subject remain completely unaddressed or neglected. The study was carried out using two major databases – Scopus and SCImago for the 21 years period from 1996 to 2016 by means of a defined scientific method. Among the several interesting observations, we have found that apart from China, no countries and research institutes from the global south are listed among the top 10 research producing countries/institutes on ecology. Considering the fact that majority of the ecologically sensitive areas and biodiversity hotspots of the world are located in the developing world and have significance influences on the ecological processes across the globe, this calls for immediate attention from the research community. During the keyword analysis, the frequent appearance of ‘restoration ecology’ and ‘landscape ecology’ among the keywords could be considered a positive development in the ecological research. Finally, we argue that it is essential for the global research community to appropriately identify both the gap and opportunities in research on ecology and holistically address concerns of ecological significance. Key words: Bibliometrics, ecology, ecological research, scientometric analysis, trends. Introduction ‘environmental science’ has emerged as an important focus area for the global research and The scientific study addressing the policy community (Table 1). Accordingly, ‘ecology’, interactions that decide the abundance and as a central subject category within the distribution of organisms is known as ‘ecology’ environmental science realm, has attained an (Krebs 1972). Prof. Eugene P. Odum (1953), increasing research attention from the scientific popularly known as the father of modern ecology, community across the globe. Broadly divided into defined ecology as ‘the study of structure and two basic categories – ‘fundamental’/ ‘basic’ and function of nature’. With growing concerns on the ‘applied’ ecology – the researches on the subject environment during the past few decades, is both essential and significant towards under- *Corresponding Author; e-mail: [email protected] 432 GLOBAL TRENDS IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH Table 1. Country-wise distribution of overall research in ‘Environmental Science’ during 1996-2016 (Source: SCImago 2018). Rank Country Documents Citations Citations per document 1 United States 470621 9962559 21.17 2 China 219409 2327649 10.61 3 United Kingdom 134007 3132493 23.38 4 Germany 106899 1995033 18.66 5 Canada 90369 1904667 21.08 6 India 80012 844142 10.55 7 Australia 73849 1496355 20.26 8 Japan 73484 1074437 14.62 9 France 73369 1540612 21.00 10 Spain 63273 1301472 20.57 11 Italy 59101 1047193 17.72 12 Netherlands 43460 1135221 26.12 13 Brazil 39483 500692 12.68 14 Sweden 33675 854016 25.36 15 South Korea 33403 476006 14.25 16 Poland 29262 278096 9.50 17 Switzerland 28681 745728 26.00 18 Russian Federation 26170 208968 7.99 19 Turkey 25707 356273 13.86 20 Taiwan 23038 367716 15.96 21 Iran 23022 205007 8.90 22 Belgium 21356 490307 22.96 23 Norway 20990 469312 22.36 24 Denmark 20798 561757 27.01 25 Finland 20386 427699 20.98 standing the ‘nature’ and its processes. Further, a collective commitment to applying scientific researches on ecology are also imperative towards knowledge to specific decisions that aim to solve attending to the ever-degrading state of the complex environmental problems today and into the environment and associated concerns in the future”. present-day world such as the climate change. Translational ecology, for instance, takes both While ‘fundamental/basic ecology’ is primarily the scientists and stakeholders collectively in order to study of diversity and interactions between develop research addressing environmental organisms and their biotic/abiotic environments, confrontations (Hallett et al. 2017). It highlights the ‘applied ecology’ is typically inspired by a well- decision-making and social contexts wherein an defined specific objective in order to resolve ecological question is raised, with the aim of environmental tribulations, including the natural creating actionable science in order to attend to resource management, in terms of biodiversity, intricate environmental concerns (Lawson et al. energy, land, or food (Courchamp et al. 2015). 2017). Engaging accomplices with diverse pers- Today, ecology is not an isolated entity. As pectives have the potential to augment the quality argued by Enquist et al. (2017): “As humans and applicability of science, nonetheless dissimi- continue to drive 21st century global environmental larities in contributor incentive structures can change, ecologists are striving to meet the challenges cause major challenge to the partnership (Hallett et of social and environmental sustainability. For al. 2017). Historical ecology, on the other hand, ecology to inform environmental policy formulation encompasses human-environmental interactions and management, new partnerships between with millennial, centennial, and decadal research ecologists and users of ecological research must be focus with the repercussions of these associations in developed. To be effective, these partnerships require the formation of present-day landscapes (Armstrong BORTHAKUR & SINGH 433 et al. 2017). Further, chemical ecology encourages science and technology, 3) information systems on an evolutionary and ecological understanding of the science and technology, and 4) socio-organizational origin and the function of chemicals interfering and cognitive structures in science and technology exchanges between and within organisms (Herve et (van Raan 1997). It had gained increasing attention al. 2018). from the research community for the past several Considering the significance and diversity of decades because of its capacity to contribute ecological research with respect to both its towards a holistic understanding of the literature in vastness and specificity, this paper is an attempt a particular subject area. to evaluate the historical and recent trends in By presenting an overview of a research area research activities in ‘ecology’ through a from a meta-perspective, scientometrics aids in the ‘scientometric analysis’ of the research publication development and progress of an academic outputs. Accordingly, in the subsequent sections, discipline by serving as a fundamental basis for we provide an overview of ‘scientometric analysis’ debating and defining the future agendas of and its significance in ‘ecological research’. This is research (Hussain 2017). Thus, it is elemental to followed by a detailed description of the carry out a scientometric analysis in order to methodology involved in this research with the realize the current trends in researches on a primary research questions. Subsequently, particular topic of concern which may aid the country-, journal-, year-, institute-, author-wise experts to locate the possible gaps in the distribution of current ecological research has been literature. Subsequently, it has policy implications documented along with the occurrence of keywords as it helps in directing research on a particular towards identifying possible gaps and topic towards uncharted dimensions and assist in opportunities. Finally, we conclude our key the allocation of both funds and resources. In the findings with future scope for possible actions. present milieu of biodiversity loss and global change, there is an escalating demand for Scientometric analysis: a background advanced predictive power in the context of ecology, both in the science-policy interface and Before going to the depth of this paper, it is scientific literature, towards increasing knowledge indispensable to recognize the relevance and and, thus, a better decision-making (Maris et al. significance of a scientometric analysis. 2018). Scientometrics is ‘the science of measuring and analyzing science, technology and innovation’ Significance of a scientometric analysis for (Hussain 2017) in terms of their scientific outputs ecological research and the impact of diverse scientific findings. Modern scientometrics is essentially rooted on the It has been observed that, although there is a landmark work of Derek de Solla Price and Eugene considerable amount of publications in the form of Garfield, who is the creator of widely used Science journal articles, conference proceedings, books, Citation Index. During the 1960s and 1970s, the use book chapters, etc. published consistently of scientometric
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