---
title: "Sustainable development research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “sustainable development” appeared in 2,090 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,172), management (351) and finance (257)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “sustainable development” appeared in 2,090 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,172), management (351) and finance (257). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “sustainable development”

Research on “sustainable development” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “sustainable development” appeared in 2,090 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,172), management (351) and finance (257).
- 341 of them were published in 2025, against 85 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Lebanese American University (41), Qingdao University (28) and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (22).
- The journals publishing most of them were Resources Policy (337), Finance research letters (79) and International Review of Economics & Finance (60).
- The most-cited of them is “Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations” (Ecological Economics, 2017), with 3,955 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 59 | 61 | 63 | 58 | 71 | 126 | 283 | 251 | 117 | 83 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 16 | 11 | 15 | 21 | 32 | 40 | 35 | 64 | 71 | 46 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 23 | 67 | 108 | 47 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 4 | 7 | 13 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 20 | 27 | 24 | 14 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 7 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 85 | 91 | 101 | 104 | 138 | 197 | 379 | 442 | 341 | 212 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 337 |
| 2 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 79 |
| 3 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 60 |
| 4 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 57 |
| 5 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 51 |
| 6 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 50 |
| 7 | [Economic Change and Restructuring](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-change-and-restructuring.md) | 48 |
| 8 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 34 |
| 9 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 33 |
| 10 | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 31 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 41 |
| 2 | [Qingdao University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/qingdao-university.md) | 28 |
| 3 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 22 |
| 4 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 21 |
| 5 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 21 |
| 6 | [Anhui University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/anhui-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 18 |
| 7 | [Liaoning University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/liaoning-university.md) | 18 |
| 8 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 17 |
| 9 | [Sichuan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sichuan-university.md) | 16 |
| 10 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | 16 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 805 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 111 |
| 3 | United States | 77 |
| 4 | Pakistan | 71 |
| 5 | India | 68 |
| 6 | Australia | 63 |
| 7 | Italy | 62 |
| 8 | Malaysia | 61 |
| 9 | France | 53 |
| 10 | Saudi Arabia | 52 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 189 |
| 2 | [economic growth](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/economic-growth.md) | 179 |
| 3 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 148 |
| 4 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 115 |
| 5 | [green finance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-finance.md) | 113 |
| 6 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 85 |
| 7 | [environmental sustainability](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-sustainability.md) | 78 |
| 8 | [resource curse](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/resource-curse.md) | 72 |
| 9 | [renewable energy](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/renewable-energy.md) | 71 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3,955 | 35.4 | [Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.06.041) | [Ecological Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ecological-economics.md) | 2017-07-12 | Jaana Korhonen, Antero Honkasalo, Jyri Seppälä |
| 2 | 811 | 9.2 | [The impact of natural resources, human capital, and foreign direct investment on the ecological footprint: The case of the United States](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.101428) | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 2019-06-17 | Muhammad Wasif Zafar, Syed Anees Haider Zaidi, Naveed R. Khan et al. |
| 3 | 786 | 11.7 | [Public spending and green economic growth in BRI region: Mediating role of green finance](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112256) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2021-03-31 | Dongyang Zhang, Muhammad Mohsin, Abdul Khaliq Rasheed et al. |
| 4 | 777 | 10.5 | [The dynamic impact of natural resources, technological innovations and economic growth on ecological footprint: An advanced panel data estimation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101817) | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 2020-09-06 | Mahmood Ahmad, Ping Yu Jiang, Abdul Hannan Majeed et al. |
| 5 | 753 | 9.0 | [Artificial intelligence and sustainable development](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100330) | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 2019-11-03 | Margaret A. Goralski, Tay Keong Tan |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “sustainable development”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-sustainable-development,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “sustainable development”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).