Trends in Attention to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations

Abstract

In 2015 the United Nations put forth 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are intended to be largely achieved by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals are a larger follow-up to the United Nations’ Millennial Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to 2000, which were the first attempt by the UN to create metrics for improving societies that were to be used across the world (From MDGs to SDGs, n.d.). This study is on trends in attention to the SDGs, as indicated by trends in the production of academic articles on the topical areas of each of the 17 SDGs. Research related to the Sustainable Development Goals is important to see what is being prioritized and what needs to get more focus (Fayomi, 2018). The sub-goals of the SDGs are called “indicators.” Key topics and terms of the SDGs and their indicators can be used in searching Google Scholar year by year to ascertain cardinal and ordinal measures of trends in article publication related to the SDGs. This is based on the premise that attention to a particular SDG in academic literature is a valid indicator related to action by nations, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations on the SDGs. This research aims to investigate changes in the relative attention paid to SDGs by academics as indicated in the absolute and relative numbers of articles produced over the period 2010-2020 as indicated by their listing, year by year, in the Google Scholar database. Key terms were extracted from the sub-goals of the SDGs and utilized as search terms. Two search terms were used for each SDG, ad based on the data, we then focused in on the most relevant one for each SDG to examine in comparison with the others. We compare the located continuities, changes in a relative number of items produced (change in ranking) over this time frame. Theories that might be tested in future research on the source of change in the relative ranking of the SDGs are put forth.