A bibliometric analysis of research on the energy-water nexus from 1963 to 2016 based on SCI-E/SSCI databases

Using the bibliometric method, this paper characterises literature regarding the energy-water nexus from 1963 to 2016 based on the Web of Science. The results indicate that the USA, the People's Republic of China and Canada were predominant in this field. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the highest-yield research institute; the Journal of Power Sources was the most productive journal; and cooperation among prolific authors centred mainly on 2 or 3 people. Using co-keyword analysis, the current key research areas in this field are as follows: water management, life cycle assessment, PEM fuel cell, desalination and renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate change. The most salient finding is that there is significantly more research from the micro-level perspective than the macro-level perspective, which means that to fully understand relationships relevant to water and energy issues, more research is needed.