Have ‘mainstream’ economics journals ‘missed the bus’ on wetland, marine and coastal ecosystems?

Abstract

We assess research published in Scopus-indexed journals from 1981 on the economics of wetlands, marine and coastal ecosystems. We used scientometric techniques to extract records of all journal articles with the keyword economics, in combination with wetland, marine or coastal ecosystems in their titles, abstracts or keywords. We compared this with publications in the top 10 journals in economics in the Scimago database. We found that these top economics journals have ignored this topic and, thus, ‘missed the bus’ on an important economic resource. They published only eight articles with these word combinations in their entire history, even though these ecosystems contribute significantly to human wellbeing. However, new journals that have been more inclusive of these themes in ecological and environmental economics have emerged. Our study adds to the literature on wetland, marine and coastal ecosystems by providing a systematic study of publications in Scopus-indexed journals on this theme. Whereas a number of studies have reviewed the literature with the objective of documenting methodological advances, our study complements them by looking at the spatial and temporal spread of the contributors. We also provide an insight on which journals are most frequently publishing research in this thematic area.