J. Geogr. Sci. 2016, 26(8): 1176-1196 DOI: 10.1007/s11442-016-1321-0 © 2016 Science Press Springer-Verlag Progress in China’s sustainable development research: Contribution of Chinese geographers YANG Yu, *LIU Yi Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China Abstract: Sustainable development has always been a hotspot in Chinese geographical re- search. Herein, we conduct a systematic statistical analysis of the contribution of Chinese geographers to sustainable development research using bibliometric methods. Based on the review of a vast amount of literature, we identify the main research teams, research funding sources, journals, and key research fields. The findings are as follows: (1) the resources and environmental institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have a significant influence on sustainable development research; (2) China’s central government foundations (the National Natural Science Foundation of China and National Social Sciences Fund) are the main re- search funding sources; (3) most of the highly cited articles are published in journals spon- sored by the Geographical Society of China; and (4) sustainable development theory and its research areas are being constantly enriched and perfected. Based on the statistics of key- words, the theory, research methods, research regional scales, and key research areas are summarized and expounded. Keywords: sustainable development; geography; bibliometric analysis 1 Introduction The concept of sustainable development is proposed clearly in the report Our Common Fu- ture, submitted to the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1987. Since then, the United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly organ- ized international conferences aimed at implementing sustainable development strategies to solve the current global environment and development problems. As a new development pattern, sustainable development has gained popularity in more and more countries, and has permeated every corner of economic development and humanity (Gan, 1993; Lv and Liu, 1998). China’s sustainable development theory and practice are different from those of de- Received: 2016-02-15 Accepted: 2016-04-06 Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41430636, No.41590841, No.41371141 Author: Yang Yu (1984–), PhD and Associate Professor, specialized in energy geography and regional development. E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author: Liu Yi (1957–), Professor, specialization in sustainable development and regional policy. E-mail: [email protected] www.geogsci.com www.springerlink.com/content/1009-637x YANG Yu et al.: Progress in China’s sustainable development research: Contribution of Chinese geographers 1177 veloped countries, which represent the common interest of developing countries and the special requirement of a distinctive large developing country (Zheng, 1994; Zhang et al., 1999b). In particular, as one of the most active fields at the forefront of research related to Chinese geography, sustainable development is the main area of recent economic geography research and has attracted extensive attention and discussion (Lu, 1994). The 33rd Interna- tional Geographical Congress will be held in Beijing in 2016. We would like to share the progress in China’s sustainable development research with our international peers. 2 Methods and data Nowadays, more and more Chinese scholars publish their sustainable development research in international journals. Most of the papers published in English can be searched and read on the Web of Knowledge and Science Direct. Thus, this paper focuses on the main studies published in Chinese, which are not easy for international peers to access and read. The data come from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI, www.cnki.net), which is the most comprehensive database of China’s academic journals. Taking sustainable devel- opment as the priority subject, 330,000 research results are returned. For a more specific analysis, we restrict the journal range to include only academic periodicals and journal titles including geography, ecology, or environment. With this restriction, our study contains 1170 journals and 12,040 papers. For a systematic formulation and introduction, we focus on not only the progress in the- ory and practice, but also the leading journals, research teams, and funding sources. It is worth noting that sustainable development research involves many aspects, and we inevita- bly miss some references by using sustainable development as the search subject. Beyond journals, some insightful studies have been published in books, and other valuable ideas are found in the form of reports, newspapers, and websites. However, our restricted statistical search method does not include the above publication formats. Since our search covers a wide range, this study reflects an objective overall review of relevant studies. 3 Overview of sustainable development research 3.1 Overview statistics The number of papers published in the field of sustainable development has increased rapidly since the 1990s. Fewer than 10 papers are identified by our search for 1993. This number surges to 541 in 2000 and peaks at 801 in 2010. Though a small wave in the quantity of published articles can be seen after the year 2000 (Figure 1), sustainable development remains a constant research hotspot with Figure 1 Number of papers published on sustainable develop- relatively high numbers of publica- ment from 1993 to 2015 1178 Journal of Geographical Sciences tions. The implications of sustainable development research do not remain constant, but keep pace with the times. China’s regional policy and global situation significantly affect the popular research subjects. Following national development strategies (e.g., Major Function Oriented Zoning, China Western Development, and China’s Northeast Revitalization Strat- egy), research papers with related topics are seen to boom. International hot topics, such as energy consumption, low-carbon economy, carbon emissions, and global climate change, also result in a large number of publications concentrated on specific topics. 3.2 Main journals The retrieved articles and their citations cover 1170 journals. Based on the original journal of publication and the citations, we analyze the leading journals and their influence. In terms of the number of published papers, China Population Resources and Environment ranks first with a total of 1518 relevant papers (more than 70 papers per year) followed by Ecological Economy (1328 papers). Seven other journals published more than 300 papers: Resources and Industry, Economic Geography, Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment, Ter- ritory and Natural Resources Study, Resources Science, Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Basin, and Acta Ecologica Sinica. However, most of the above journals are not highly ranked and even disappear in Table 1 due to their low numbers of citations and in- fluence. In terms of the number of citations, China Population Resources and Environment, Acta Ecologica Sinica, Resources Science, Economic Geography, Ecological Economy, and Journal of Natural Resources are the most cited journals, with each journal having more than 10,000 citations. The numbers of citations in Progress in Geography, Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology, Geographical Research, Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Ba- sin, and Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment are more than 5000. These 11 journals make a great contribution to the academic communication of sustainable develop- ment research and the dissemination of science. In terms of high impact, Acta Geographica Sinica and Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology are the leading journals, with their high complex impact values ranking them as the top two. Each of them has an average of 50 cita- tions per paper. Acta Geographica Sinica has the highest complex impact value of 188.86. Notably, 5 journals in the top 10 are sponsored by the Geographical Society of China (GSC): Acta Geographica Sinica, Progress in Geography, Geographical Research, Scientia Geographica Sinica, and Economic Geography. Five journals in the top 10 are hosted by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR), making it the dominant institute in China’s sustainable development research. 3.3 Research team We calculated the publications and citations by author affiliation. A total of 19 universities and institutes published more than 100 papers. IGSNRR ranks far ahead with 690 articles and 22,983 citations, and plays a leading role in China’s sustainable development research. Most of the directors of specialized committees are the renowned professors of IGSNRR with great academic attainments in their own disciplines. Following IGSNRR are Peking University (PKU), Nanjing University (NJU), Sun Yat-Sen University (SYSU), Beijing Normal University (BNU), Lanzhou University (LZU), and East China Normal University YANG Yu et al.: Progress in China’s sustainable development research: Contribution of Chinese geographers 1179 (ECNU); these universities are highly ranked in Geography in China’s university ranking system and possess great research and technological strengths. It is apparent that the insti- tutes of resources and environment belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences demon- strate good performance in sustainable research, accounting for 20% of the top 40 institu- tions and universities.