On the occasion of the reorganization of disciplinary fields (DF) which is under implementation by the MIUR (Italian Ministry for Research and Education), the scientific production of the Italian forest research in two characterizing disciplines (AGR05 Forest management and Silviculture, and AGR06 Wood technology and Forest Operation) has been qualitatively investigated over the period 2005-2017. Using a text mining software, 2,112 scientific articles indexed in the SCOPUS database were analyzed and the evolution over time of the Italian forest research in the above disciplines was examined. The results indicate that ecosystem functions and services have pushed forest research to overcome the aspects linked to wood production (which still remains an important competence of the two DFs), to tackle topics aiming to understand the functioning and functionality of forest ecosystems, provide tools for monitoring forest dynamics and highlight the contribution of forests and urban green areas in contrasting climate change in terms of adaptation and mitigation. As regards the AGR06 sector, studies on forest operations have been mainly focused on issues related to the forest-energy supply chain, while for wood technology the enhancement of structural uses, the modified wood, and the conservation of Wooden Cultural Heritage have emerged. Therefore, the reorganization of disciplinary fields must certainly take into account the traditional Italian forestry thinking and the aspects related to planning, management and close-tonature forestry, but also the evolution of forestry research in the past 15 years, which led to an intense scientific activity and production, must be considered. In defining the new declarations, it will therefore be appropriate firstly to consider the peculiarity in the area of Agricultural Science, and then the specificity of skills and research that each one of the two sectors carries forward both jointly and separately, thus ensuring to both sectors an adequate representation in autonomous profiles and domains.
Keywords: Forestry, Wood, Scientometrics, SCOPUS
IntroduzioneL'attività scientifica dei ricercatori forestali italiani è stata oggetto di recente valutazione mediante l'esame della produttività bibliometrica (Giannetti et al. 2016) dei settori scientifico-disciplinari (SSD) di riferimento: Assestamento Forestale e Selvicoltura (AGR05) e Tecnologia del legno ed Utilizzazioni forestali (AGR06). L'analisi ha riguardato la comparazione della produttività aggregata dei ricercatori italiani con quelli degli altri Paesi, la sequenza temporale delle citazioni e la produzione scientifica delle diverse fasce e categorie di ricercatori. I risultati di questo studio hanno evidenziato che, all'interno del comparto forestale, i ricercatori Italiani si collocano al secondo posto (dietro la Gran Bretagna) nella classifica ottenuta dividendo gli investimenti lordi in Ricerca e Sviluppo per la produzione scientifica bibliometrica. Essi si caratterizzano inoltre per un trend crescente di produzione scientifica,...
