Research Collaboration Patterns in Sustainable Mining—A Co-Authorship Analysis of Publications

Abstract

This article quantitatively examines the patterns of collaborative research in the field of sustainable development of the mining sector. The study is based on bibliographic data of 4420 Scopus index research articles published in the period 1983–2018. Both trend and network analyses were employed in this investigation. The results show a rise in the number of joint articles and in the average number of the authors per joint article. Moreover, no increase in the relative numbers of interinstitutional, international, and cross-sector articles was observed. The collaborative efforts, in terms of the co-authorships, were taken mostly among authors affiliated with the one sector—namely, science and research institutions. This indicates that funding agencies should foster more intensively the cross-sector research collaborations for sustainable mining. However, the most collaborative countries formed cross-continental clusters, thus indicating the global character of research collaboration for sustainable mining. This, in turn, can support solving mining issues with long-term implications, especially the impact of the mining industry on the environment.