World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Environmental Policy and Governance
H-index 12

Environmental Policy and Governance

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Political Science 200 14 13 5
Social Sciences and Humanities 526 14 20 9
Environmental Sciences 735 6 9 5

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 44
Documents by Best Scientists*: 45
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 5
SCIMAGO H-index: 62
SCIMAGO SJR: 1.349
Impact Factor: 3.9

Overview

Top Research Topics at Environmental Policy and Governance?

The journal generally zeroes in on subjects such as Corporate governance, Environmental resource management, Public administration, Environmental governance and Environmental planning. Issues in Corporate governance were discussed, taking into consideration concepts from other disciplines like Government, Economic system, Politics and Public relations. The Environmental resource management works featured in Environmental Policy and Governance incorporate elements from Social learning, Stakeholder, Climate change, Citizen journalism and Sustainability.

Climate change research is the primary subject tackled in the journal with a focus on Political economy of climate change. While Environmental Policy and Governance focused on Sustainability, it was also able to explore topics like Environmental economics and Sustainable development. The work tackled in the journal goes beyond the discipline of Public administration as it also encompasses Legitimacy.

  • Corporate governance (34.89%)
  • Environmental resource management (27.45%)
  • Public administration (13.40%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Environmental governance: participatory, multi-level - and effective? (578 citations)
  • Environmental policy integration: a state of the art review (400 citations)
  • Jumping off Arnstein's ladder: social learning as a new policy paradigm for climate change adaptation (277 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Environmental Policy and Governance:

The journal publications investigate areas of study like Environmental resource management, Corporate governance, Climate change, Public relations and Public economics. While work presented in the published papers provide substantial information on Environmental resource management, it also covers topics in Social learning, Natural resource, Resource management, Economic system and Social engagement. Issues in Corporate governance were discussed in the journal papers, taking into consideration concepts from other disciplines like Stakeholder and Water Framework Directive.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Law
  • Social science
  • China

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The foci of Environmental Policy and Governance are Corporate governance, Politics, Regional science, Environmental planning and Public administration. The concepts on Corporate governance presented in it can also apply to other research fields, including Urban climate, Territoriality and Environmental economics. The presented Politics research focuses mostly on Political economy and, on occasion, topics in Civil society, Nuclear power, Framing (social sciences) and Developmental state.

Environmental Policy and Governance holds forums on Regional science that merges themes from other disciplines such as Climate change, Climate governance, Multi-level governance, Co-creation and Interactive governance. It explores research in Public administration alongside concepts in Collaborative governance and other areas of study in Legitimacy and Environmental governance. The study of Legitimation and how it intertwines with concepts under Economic system were explored in the presented Environmental governance research.

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Environmental Governance of China's Belt and Road Initiative (12 citations)
  • Changing dynamics of the nuclear energy policy‐making process in Japan (8 citations)
  • Uncovering regime resistance in energy transition: Role of electricity iron triangle in Taiwan (6 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Environmental Policy and Governance (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Jens Newig (7 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • Jouni Paavola (7 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • Irene Ring (7 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Peter P.J. Driessen (6 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Åsa Gerger Swartling (5 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Environmental Policy and Governance (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Wageningen University and Research Centre (15 papers) published 3 papers at the last edition,
  • Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ (15 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • University of Leeds (14 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition,
  • Utrecht University (14 papers) published 2 papers at the last edition,
  • Lüneburg University (10 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 9.26% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 32.65% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 12.24% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 14.29% of all publications and 40.82% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Top Publications

  • Environmental Governance of China's Belt and Road Initiative

    Johanna Coenen;Johanna Coenen;Simon Bager;Patrick Meyfroidt;Jens Newig

    (2021)
    195 Citations
  • Designing and leading collaborative urban climate governance: Comparative experiences of co‐creation from Copenhagen and Oslo

    (2022)
    64 Citations
  • Delivering a timely and Just Energy Transition: Which policy research priorities?

    Giuseppe Pellegrini‐Masini;Alberto Pirni;Stefano Maran;Christian A. Klöckner

    (2020)
    29 Citations
  • Polycentric energy governance: Under what conditions do energy communities scale?

    (2022)
    24 Citations
  • Can interbasin water transfer affect water consumption and pollution? Lessons from China's South–North water transfer project

    Jichuan Sheng;Jichuan Sheng;Weizong Tang;Michael Webber

    (2020)
    24 Citations
  • Community action on natural flood management and the governance of a catchment-based approach in the UK

    Alice Garvey;Jouni Paavola

    (2021)
    18 Citations
  • China's climate change policy: Central–local governmental interaction

    Yunhan Zhang;Jan Orbie;Sarah Delputte

    (2020)
    18 Citations

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal