Authorship, Collaboration, Topics, and Research Gaps in Environmental and Resource Economics 1991–2015

Abstract

Environmental and Resource Economics is one of the premier journals in the field of environmental economics. It was established with an aspiration to focus more on applied and policy relevant research compared to other established journals, and to establish better channels of communication and collaboration between researchers from Europe and other parts of the world. We present a text based exploratory analysis of 1,630 articles published in the Journal from 1991 to 2015 that suggests the Journal has been somewhat successful in meeting both these aims. Perhaps more importantly, it shows the Journal continues to progress toward these goals. The European authors are the largest contributors to the Journal, which is in contrast to other prominent journals (such as Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and Ecological Economics). And while most of the collaboration has occurred within this geographic region (e.g., European authors collaborated with other European authors more frequently), this trend appears to be changing as the proportion of articles written by international collaborators is gradually increasing. Topic analysis reveals that almost all of the articles could be grouped under applied and / or policy relevant topics, and almost two-thirds of the articles are empirical in nature, which suggest that the journal has been able to fulfil both of its commitments. We also investigate trends in research foci over the last twenty-five years and what kind of research gaps can be discerned.

Where communities intermingle, diversity grows – The evolution of topics in ecosystem service research

“…Every document consists of a particular set of words. The probability that word w i is contained in document d k is given by where z is the latent topic, P ( w i / z ) is the probability of word given topic z , and P ( z | d k ) is the probability of topic z given the document d k [ 36 , 56 ].…”

Text as Data in Environmental Economics and Policy

“…Finally, quantitative text methods also allow researchers to study trends in particular disciplines. For example, Polyakov et al (2018) quantify the evolution of research topics in the journal Environmental and Resource Economics. Using topic modeling, they show, for example, that conservation received more research attention after 1993 (when the Convention on Biological Diversity was enacted).…”

Twenty Key Challenges in Environmental and Resource Economics

“…Based on citation data Auffhammer (2009) identifies important topics and scholars and provides a brief historical overview of the discipline from exhaustible and renewable resources to sustainability, pollution control, development, international trade, climate change, international agreements, and non-market valuation. Polyakov et al (2018) analyze authorship patterns using text analysis for classification of articles in Environmental and Resource Economics. Based on 1630 articles published in the Journal from 1991 to 2015 they document the importance of applied and policy-oriented content in the field.…”

“…Polyakov et al. ( 2018 ) analyze authorship patterns using text analysis for classification of articles in Environmental and Resource Economics. Based on 1630 articles published in the Journal from 1991 to 2015 they document the importance of applied and policy-oriented content in the field.…”