Multiple factors that shaped sustainability science journal: a 10-year review

Abstract

Sustainability Science Journal celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016, and we see this milestone as an opportunity to reflect on its decade of sustainability science research. All the published articles from 2006 to 2015 were reviewed in this study using qualitative and quantitative methods to (a) assess scope, diversity, and representativeness in the publications, (b) analyse the trends and dominance in the content, and (c) evaluate cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge transfer along with the practice of transdisciplinarity in sustainability science research. Our assessment shows that the journal has transformed from publishing more uniform contributions into a more diverse international journal demonstrating greater breadth in the range of contributing authors, case studies, and field of studies. We observed a progressive transition in the content of the journal from the domination of natural sciences contributions to cross-disciplinary and sustainability science research. A growing collaboration amongst authors from different disciplines also suggests that researchers from an array of backgrounds are increasingly working together, combining knowledge and advancing sustainability science. Although researchers still base their work largely on their own disciplinary knowledge, there is an increasing trend to cite cross-disciplinary research with the aim of addressing complex sustainability problems.