Unveiling Research Trends on the Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals advocated by the United Nations in 2015 focus upon five major crucial areas of concern by 2030 i.e., people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. Through a bibliometric analysis, the present study intends to examine the trends, development, and prospects of the Sustainable Development Goals from 2016 to 2023. The study employed VOSviewer, MS Excel, and Biblioshiny (R Studio) to examine data collected from the Web of Science core collection database. In total, 2,814 title-based articles were analyzed and refined. Various methods were employed to identify the multidimensional contribution to the research of SDGs, including analysis of keywords, prolific authors, productive journals, active institutions and countries, and collaborations. The study identified significant clusters of SDG themes, such as environmental sustainability, education and attitude towards sustainability, and improvement in health quality and women's participation. The study also identified the top publications, prominent authors and journals, active institutions, research gaps, and nations contributing to this domain. The results show that high-income nations have a notably higher level of deliberation regarding SDG research. The results revealed significant implications, offering insightful information to stakeholders, researchers, and policymakers to prioritize future research endeavors and resource allocation to best achieve the 2030 SDGs.