Visualization and analysis of mapping knowledge domains for the global transition towards clean cooking: a bibliometric review of research output from 1990 to 2020

Abstract

Current statistics report that 2.6 billion households across the globe rely on polluting and inefficient cooking fuels and technologies, posing death-threatening health risks to people mainly from developing countries/regions. Several studies on clean cooking have been conducted with the emergence of international organizations such as the Clean Cooking Alliance to raise awareness. In the current study, a bibliometric tool, CiteSpace, was employed to analyze the 877 documents retrieved from the SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, and A&HCI databases on clean cooking research from 1990 to 2020. The results reveal that interest in clean cooking research took a sharp rise in the last decade, especially after 2016. The research field has become increasingly interdisciplinary but has mostly centered on environment, energy, and health. The most productive countries/ regions in this field are the USA, India, England, and China. The keyword and citation analyses indicate that research in this field mostly focuses on adverse impacts of household air pollution from unclean cooking fuels and technologies on the environment and public health particularly, in developing countries/regions. Also, the drivers and barriers to the large-scale adoption of clean cooking fuels and technologies have become a topic of interest in recent years. The three most studied clean cooking fuels among various regions are LPG, biogas, and electricity. This study synthesizes global research on clean cooking and may be beneficial to other researchers in understanding current trends in this field and serve as a guide for concentrating on the most important topics.

A bibliometric analysis of the impact of COVID-19 social lockdowns on air quality: research trends and future directions

“…Journal co-citation analysis refers to when the same paper cites two journals (Afrane et al 2022a , b ). Figure 5 displays the co-citation link of the most productive journals.…”

“…By analyzing the frequency of keyword occurrence, a researcher may find beneficial information such as a document’s objectives, methods, and perspectives (Afrane et al 2022a , b ; Agyepong and Liang 2022 ; Effah et al 2022 ; Jin et al 2022 ). The author keyword is the list of keywords in the article and is a useful part of data for the scientific community on research-changing aspects and evaluations (Chen 2006 ; Zhang et al 2020a ).…”

“…The author keyword is the list of keywords in the article and is a useful part of data for the scientific community on research-changing aspects and evaluations (Chen 2006 ; Zhang et al 2020a ). The keyword plus on the other hand is created from the titles of the cited documents and denotes an expanded scope of the search to capture relevant and related terms (Afrane et al 2022a , b ; Zhang and Liang 2020 ). Keywords and keyword plus analyses suggest a practical method to find new research prospects on a specific theme (Afrane et al 2022a , b ; Khan et al 2021 ; Zhang et al 2020b ).…”

“…The keyword plus on the other hand is created from the titles of the cited documents and denotes an expanded scope of the search to capture relevant and related terms (Afrane et al 2022a , b ; Zhang and Liang 2020 ). Keywords and keyword plus analyses suggest a practical method to find new research prospects on a specific theme (Afrane et al 2022a , b ; Khan et al 2021 ; Zhang et al 2020b ). The researchers adopted CiteSpace to map the keyword co-occurrence network to comprehend the progress of research interests and find hotspots in this field.…”

Controlled cooking tests comparing the financial, energy and time costs of different food and stove combinations in Nairobi, Kenya

“…It has been the pilot market of choice for many of the most innovative clean cooking companies in the world (e.g. Burn Manufacturing, PAYGO Energy, Circle Gas and KOKO Networks), has its own clean cooking membership association (https://ccak.or.ke/) and is the epicentre of clean cooking research on the continent (Afrane et al, 2022). This has resulted in a wide range of clean and improved cooking solutions available to consumers alongside the traditional ones, each with its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages.…”