Protected Area Effectiveness in the Scientific Literature: A Decade-Long Bibliometric Analysis

Protected areas (PAs) aim to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long term. Despite remarkable growth in the area covered by PAs in recent years, biodiversity trends still show worrisome outcomes. Here, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) of scientific articles focusing on the ecological effectiveness of PAs that were published in the 2010-2019 decade using Scopus in order to show the latest publication trends in that research field. After three consecutive screenings, we analyzed a final census sample of 76 articles that used semiexperimental research designs. We assessed 3 thematic variables (i.e., related to ecological effectiveness) and 13 bibliometric variables through descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation tests, and Kruskal-Wallis difference tests. Our results demonstrate the growing size of research teams working on this topic, broader international collaboration, and greater length of the articles published on this subject. During that decade, the number of normalized citations (+28%) and the mean field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) of the set of reviewed articles (33% higher than expected) increased. We also observed an increase in open access publications (+13%). However, this mode of publication did not ensure more citations. Finally, we observed a positive correlation between the number of normalized citations and the inclusion of Supplementary Data in the articles.

Automated summary

This study conducted a systematic literature review of scientific articles published between 2010 and 2019 on the ecological effectiveness of protected areas (PAs). The research revealed the latest publication trends in this field, showing an increase in research team size, international collaboration, and article length. There was also an increase in the number of citations and the field-weighted citation impact of the reviewed articles, indicating their growing influence. However, open access publications did not necessarily result in more citations. The inclusion of Supplementary Data in articles showed a positive correlation with the number of citations.