Mapping the scientific research in organic farming: a bibliometric review

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to analyze the scientific productivity, collaboration and impact of research on organic agriculture through bibliometric analyses of articles included in the Science Citation Index Expanded database for the period 1954–2013. A number of 1009 research articles were published in 359 journals belonging to several subject areas, being Agriculture Multidisciplinary, Agronomy and Environmental Sciences the most productive. A social network analysis of collaboration between small countries and co-words was performed in order to analyze the most powerful scientific cooperation. The results highlight the important of the collaboration between small countries from north and eastern of Europe, as well as four non-European countries along with the US: Canada, Australia, Brazil and China, which is consistent with the importance that the consumption of products derived from organic farming has in these countries.