Bibliometric study on SDG 6: analysing main content aspects by using Web of Science data from 2015 to 2021

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the article is to understand how the literature has been addressing the United Nations' Sixth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to obtain an overview of the current scenario and future perspectives.

Design/methodology/approach

For that, a bibliometric analysis will be conducted with documents published between 2015 and 2021 and present in the Web of Science database. Initially, 328 documents were identified, and after careful reading of titles and abstracts, 239 documents were analysed. The documents were analysed using tools available on the Web of Science database and the software Bibliometrix.

Findings

Amongst the results generated, it should be highlighted the identification of the motor themes “sustainable development” + “developing countries” and “water security”, presenting a significant relevance to the field and a high development level. In addition, “human rights” was verified as an emerging theme in the context of SDG 6 debates.

Originality/value

The information provided here offers good documentation of the extent to which SDG 6 is documented in the literature and can be helpful for researchers interested in the topic.

Citation

Dibbern, T.A., Rampasso, I.S., Pavan Serafim, M., Bertazzoli, R., Leal Filho, W. and Anholon, R. (2023), "Bibliometric study on SDG 6: analysing main content aspects by using Web of Science data from 2015 to 2021", Kybernetes, Vol. 52 No. 9, pp. 3119-3135. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-05-2021-0393