Analyzing the Scientific Evolution of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Development must balance social, economic, and environmental sustainability; it is for this reason that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are integrated, in fact, action in one of them will affect outcomes in others. In consequence, research on the SDGs is broad, complex, and fragmented due to the great diversity of disciplines and approaches involved, making it difficult to obtain valuable and unbiased information for future studies. As a result, a comprehensive review of contributions could provide a comprehensive critical perspective. This article applies SciMAT software to analyze the evolution of this field of research through a systematic literature review of bibliographic records on the SDGs and a review based on bibliometric analysis of 10,272 selected records. Additionally, hidden themes and their development in this field from 1990 to 2020 have been identified to produce strategic diagrams, graphs of thematic evolution and performance indicators of the research field in different periods. The results obtained show a constantly evolving scientific field, from its initial focus on the millennium goals to the gradual inclusion of the current SDGs. They provide field experts with a comprehensive overview of the status quo and predict the dynamic directions of future research, serving as a basis for the development of new strategies for the implementation of the SDGs.

Sustainable development goals: a bibliometric analysis of literature reviews

“…The cluster 2 presented higher ANC when compared to cluster 3, which presented the same number of countries, a greater number of documents and citations, but a smaller percentage of developing countries. This is a strong indicative that developing countries are relevant when it comes to SDG, since there is an exclusive SDG that seeks equality (SDG 10) and this topic remains at the center of global debates (Díaz-López et al 2021 ; Bose and Khan 2022 ).…”

“…However, there are crucial challenges to overcome, emphasizing the importance of the interrelationship between sectors, actors, and countries that have lesser and greater economic development (Stafford-Smith et al 2017 ). Additionally, it can be pointed out the strong interdependencies between the failure or delay to implement one goal and how it will have repercussion in the others goals (Randers et al 2018 ; Díaz-López et al 2021 ).…”

“…A broad view of a research area is important for obtaining valuable and impartial prospects for future research developments. Thus, a comprehensive review is needed to facilitate the integration of the contributions to provide a critical perspective (Díaz-López et al 2021 ).…”

“…Although many bibliometric studies have been found in the field of SDGs research, most of them focus on specific disciplines, such as SDG and the business sector (Pizzi et al 2020), education (Prieto-Jiménez et al 2021, poverty (Yu and Huang 2021), and few bibliometric studies cover the SDG general aspects and its evolution. Nevertheless, some interesting bibliometric studies of SDG trends are worth mentioning, such as the study of Díaz-López et al (2021), Meschede (2020), Yeh et al (2022), andSianes et al (2022). All of them included a large number of documents (thousands) and do none of them focused on literature review articles.…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals: Achievements and Expectations

“…There have been many supranational strategies to promote sustainable development, from Agenda 21 in 1982 [ 3 ], the Millennium Development Goals at the beginning of the 21st century [ 4 ], and the recent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established in 2015, including several evaluation milestones [ 5 ]. Agreed on by 193 countries, the SDGs are operationalized through 169 targets and 213 measurable indicators that form a global action plan [ 6 ]. They aim to address the systemic barriers to sustainable development in three dimensions—social, economic and environmental—with universal application under the premise of a growing interconnected world [ 7 ].…”