A Bibliometric Investigation of Ecocide Research: Tracing Trends and Shaping the Future

Abstract

Nearly every single day, research reports testify new evidences of substantial environmental degradation occurring around the world, impacting the lives of millions of people. As a notion, this environmental degradation that pertains to both naturally existing mechanisms of environmental or ecosystem degradation and ecological destruction due to anthropogenic activities is commonly referred to as Ecocide. While there is a significant body of research on ecocide, there appears to be a noticeable absence of bibliometric analyses dedicated to comprehensively studying and exploring this field. While the majority of literature in the area of environmental degradation revolves around the detrimental impacts of ecocide, there is a dearth of studies exploring the past, present and future of extant literature using bibliometric analysis. This research adopts bibliometric methodology to glean significant insights into the progress made in this field, delving into research articles published from 1990 to 2022. The paper aims to classify the available literature on Ecocide based on bibliometric criteria, including publication year, geographical region, authorship, affiliated institution, and source. Also, a bibliometric analysis of keyword co-occurrence to understand the mainstream themes underpinning the Ecocide literature was performed. The paper also reviews the legal frameworks and comes up with future areas of research in the domain of ecocide. This work can help find commonalities and connections in the published works. With this knowledge, researchers might build stronger partnerships and reach a larger audience with their advances. This research can fill up the gaps in the extant literature and provide new directions for research and policymaking.