As the global community strives to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), bibliometric analysis offers valuable insights into research trends, impact, and collaboration patterns related to these critical areas. We are excited to announce a special issue focused on “Fostering SDG-related Research through the Lens of Bibliometrics.”
We invite scholars, researchers, and practitioners to submit original research articles, reviews, and case studies that explore the following topics:
● Bibliometric methodologies for assessing SDG-related research output
● Trends and patterns in scholarly publications addressing the SDG
● The role of collaboration and networks in advancing SDG-related research
● The impact of funding mechanisms that promote SDG-related research
● Corporate commitments to sustainability and their relation with SDG-related research
● Challenges and opportunities in using bibliometrics to foster SDG research
Submission instructions
Submissions should be made through the MetaROR platform (https://metaror.org) in which the open review process will be managed before a selection is being made by the guest editorial board. A special JDIS track is available at MetaROR, when you submit your paper. More specific information about the submission process can be found at https://metaror.org/how-to-submit.
The Submission deadline is September 15, 2025. For more information, please contact us at jdis@mail.las.ac.cn.
Guest editors
The editorial team of this special collection consists of eight experts on the topic. They all have ample experience in technical and content aspects of the mapping of research output to SDGs.
André Brasil Varandas Pinto is a researcher at CWTS (Leiden University) and UNESCO Co-Chair for Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science. He is also a core member of a government working group analyzing how Brazilian research and graduate education contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as part of the country’s preparations for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30), which Brazil will host in 2025.
Tommaso Ciarli is Senior Researcher in Economics of Innovation at UNU-MERIT, United Nations University, and SPRU, University of Sussex. He has led research and published on a wide range of associated areas, ranging from computational models of economic development; inclusive innovation; science studies; modelling sustainable transitions and estimating the impact of violent conflict on economic activity.
Hugo Confraria is an economist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Seville. He contributes to the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard and conducts broader analyses using science and innovation-related data. Prior to joining the JRC in February 2023, Hugo was a postdoctoral researcher at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex (UK), where he co-developed the STRINGS team’s approach to mapping research related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). His research has been published in journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Technology Transfer, Scientometrics, and Research Evaluation.
Dmytro Filchenko is Senior Director at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Clarivate. ISI is the R&D arm of many Clarivate solutions in research intelligence, including SDG classification scheme in Web of Science and InCites. As a Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of Benchmarking, among other functions, he was responsible for reinforcing and monitoring the performance of several Eastern European universities to meet SDG targets and indicators.
Ed Noyons is a senior researcher at CWTS, Leiden University. He has been bibliometric analyst for decades, focusing on the science society interactions in the most recent years. He has been involved in the high profile SDG project STRINGS and developed in that context a tool to map research to SDGs from different perspectives.
Philip Purnell studied methods of identifying SDG related research publications as part of his PhD in bibliometrics and policy at Leiden University. Prior to that, he worked for Thomson Reuters on the launch of article-level citation indicators, the book and conference proceedings citation indexes, and led a range of thought leadership activities. Philip has also been regional ORCID Ambassador, advisor to university rankings organizations, and a strategy consultant to a number of universities.
Juergen Wastl is the VP Research Evaluation and Global Challenges at Digital Science. He drives initiatives that align research capabilities with global challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals. His expertise is in data-driven insights and strategic project management to empower research institutions, governments, and funders to address research in the context of sustainability.
Alfredo Yegros is a senior researcher at CWTS, Leiden University, specialising in scientometrics and patent analysis. His research explores the dynamics of scientific and technological production, with a focus on funding distribution and research performance. He also examines research landscapes across various domains, the co-production of knowledge between sectors, and knowledge flows.