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Exploratory factor analysis of bibliometric indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals

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  • Barbara S. Lancho Barrantes

    (University of Brighton)

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to create an inclusive world for everyone. The United Nations has urged all member states to work towards achieving 17 goals by 2030, including 169 targets. The UN emphasises that achieving these SDGs will not be possible without the support and effort of academic and scientific research worldwide. Various bibliometric databases have developed search strings to capture publications related to the SDGs to assist the academic community in measuring their contributions to these goals. After reviewing these databases, it became evident that Clarivate InCites Benchmarking & Analytics provides the most extensive number of indicators for analysing SDG-related research. To identify a small number of factors that explain most of the variance observed in a much larger number of manifest bibliometric indicators, this study employs exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to reduce the information associated with each SDG. This method will help reveal associations among indicators of the impact of academic contributions on achieving the SDGs worldwide. The publication data ranges from 2014 to 2023 and is organised by SDG using data Web of Science. SPSS software has been used to perform the EFA. The results from the factor analysis indicate that the first three components explain a substantial 79.24% of the variance of all indicators, highlighting their importance in the context of the SDG analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara S. Lancho Barrantes, 2025. "Exploratory factor analysis of bibliometric indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 130(3), pages 1701-1729, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:130:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-025-05256-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-025-05256-8
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