Sustainable development policies and interventions: A bibliometric analysis of the contributions of the academic community

Abstract

Sustainable development has become a global watch phrase among policymakers, policy implementers, development practitioners, academic and non-academic institutions, governments, and non-governmental organizations for pursuing and creating a just and sustainable future for all. Here, a descriptive bibliometric analysis of the contributions of the academic community to the sustainable development discourse was carried out. The results indicate that between 1999 and 2022 over 160,076 works were published by academics on sustainable development, with a huge proportion of these publications being research articles. Most of these publications are in the areas of environmental science, energy, and social sciences, among others. Furthermore, majority of the publications on sustainable development in Africa are on social sciences compared to the environmental science focus for the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Regarding publications on sustainable development policies, there are 1781 publications between 1998 and 2022 with the majority focusing on environmental sciences, energy, and social sciences. Only 37 publications were recorded across the world between 2000 and 2022 with a focus on sustainable development interventions, and the majority were on social sciences and environmental science. In conclusion, the academic community has made a noticeable but imbalanced contribution to the sustainable development discourse and global transformation agenda.