Science mapping on the Environmental Footprint: A scientometric analysis-based review

Over these past years, the degradation of the environment has led to an increasing awareness of human impacts on nature. This review adopts the bibliometric and scientometric analysis method to materialize the perception of the increasing interest in the Environmental Footprint domain and, more specifically, in the Environmental Footprint and Life-Cycle Assessment research area. Data retrieved from the Web of Science and mapped with the VOSViewer have been used to evaluate the evolutionary trend and current status of two datasets, the Environmental Footprint dataset and the Environmental Footprint and Life-Cycle Assessment dataset. The findings aimed at providing valuable information related to these fields, such as (1) the characterization of publications, (2) most relevant references cited, (3) most influential keywords in the research topics, (4) major journal sources and (5) main countries active in this particular research field. In addition, new emerging trends, such as the Product Environmental Footprint and the Organization Environmental Footprint were spotted in the analysis. A qualitative discussion is provided identifying main research areas and further research directions. This review may help practitioners and researchers by providing a better understanding of the current state of the Environmental Footprint research field and serve as a starting point for future studies.