Analysis of the world scientific production on public’s opinion on environmental issues

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the scientific production related to public attitude, behavior and acceptance of environmental issues through a bibliometric analysis. The databases Scopus was used to analyze the papers published in the subject area of environmental science. Bibliometric analysis was performed for authors, institutions, source type, document type, number of citations and countries in relation to publication year. An analysis of keywords of publications was also performed. The number of publications shows an overall exponential trend after 1965 until 2017. The most productive institution is the Wageningen University and Research Centre, followed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing Normal University. The keywords of the categories associated with "Ecology", "Sustainability,” and "Environmental Policy-Management" are the most commonly used in most studies. It seems that there is room for more intensive research on fields related to public's opinion on specific environmental issues. The findings of the research will contribute to a better understanding of the current state of the art, identifying key research areas in the field of public opinion on environmental issues and identifying future research trends and directions.