Ships that pass in the night: Does scholarship on the social benefits of urban greening have a disciplinary crosstalk problem?

Two original research pieces - both about the outcomes of tree planting, with similar research designs, both published in January 2018 (Whitburn et al. in Environment and Behavior, and Watkins et al. in Cities) - cite precisely zero journal articles in common. This commentary presents a qualitative & quantitative analysis of the citation lists of these two pieces. Of 101 total journal articles cited across both pieces, I find no overlap in scholarly journal articles cited, and only 3 of 62 scholarly journals cited in common. One of the pieces cites not a single article from Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. I use the comparison between these two articles (one of which is my own) as an example of the potential pitfalls of inter- and transdisciplinary scholarship on the social benefits of urban greening. I conclude the commentary with several practical steps we can take as reflective and mindful researchers - steps I myself will be taking - to reduce the likelihood that important insights from the literature are missed during all phases of research.