A Bibliometric Analysis Of The Global Research On Big Data For Sustainable Development

There is a growing interest in the literature on the theme of big data and sustainable development. As the volume of data is increasing exponentially so does the need to analyse, understand and use this data in the context of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. The data revolution, the open data movement, the rise of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things have the power to transform society through integrated actions in order to tackle the environmental, economic and social challenges that we are facing today. Despite all these opportunities, there is still a lack of knowledge on how to make the best use of all existing big data and how it can be mapped in research areas so the public can benefit. Therefore, this paper proposes a bibliometric analysis on the subject of big data for sustainable development with the aim to assist in the development of future research papers. To this end, journals indexed in Scopus database have been used. We extracted a total of 281 papers that were further analysed using the following criteria: publication year, affiliation, country, funding sponsor, type of research document, subject area and most identified keywords. The results of the review serves as the basis for determining possible future research projects, raising awareness at the country level as to the lack of funding towards this domain and the achievement of SDG sustained by the UN.