Organic Livestock Production: A Bibliometric Review
1
Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy
2
Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
3
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Ryton-on-Dunsmore CV8 3LG, UK
4
Department of Veterinary Science, University of Parma, Via del Taglio 10, 43126 Parma, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Animals 2020, 10(4), 618; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10040618
Received: 6 March 2020 / Revised: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 31 March 2020 / Published: 3 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Animal System and Management)
Simple Summary
The organic livestock sector has been experiencing a fast growth and, lately, organic farming has become a trending topic. However, the scientific research behind the organic livestock sector is not often clear. A bibliometric review is the first approach to a topic because it helps to provide an overview of the research conducted on the topic itself. It identifies the countries involved in organic livestock production research and the scientific interaction between countries and authors, and it allows to map the keywords of the published papers. These are all key aspects to bear in mind when starting a new research area or writing a research proposal. The bibliometric analysis conducted here includes peer-reviewed documents to guarantee, from a scientific point of view, the quality of the selected studies. In this paper, we present a new technique to analyze the literature from a bibliometric point of view, and the results and conclusions extracted from the investigated topic (i.e., organic livestock production).
Due to the increasing interest in organic farming, an overview of this research area is provided through a bibliometric analysis conducted between April and May 2019. A total of 320 documents were published up until 2018 on organic livestock farming, with an annual growth rate of 9.33% and a clear increase since 2005; 268 documents have been published in 111 journals. Germany is the country with the largest number of published papers (56 documents). Authors’ top keywords (excluding keywords used for running the search) included: animal welfare (29 times), animal health (22 times), cattle (15 times), grazing (10 times), and sheep (10 times). This could indicate that more research has been done on cattle because of the importance of this species in Germany. Moreover, the prevalence of the terms ‘animal welfare’ and ‘animal health’ may indicate that the research on organic livestock production has been focused on these two areas. The bibliometric analysis indicates that: (i) countries focused the organic livestock production research on their main production, and (ii) more research in species other than cattle and sheep is needed.
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Keywords:
bibliometrix R; cattle; organic; poultry; sheep
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MDPI and ACS Style
Manuelian, C.L.; Penasa, M.; da Costa, L.; Burbi, S.; Righi, F.; De Marchi, M. Organic Livestock Production: A Bibliometric Review. Animals 2020, 10, 618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10040618
AMA Style
Manuelian CL, Penasa M, da Costa L, Burbi S, Righi F, De Marchi M. Organic Livestock Production: A Bibliometric Review. Animals. 2020; 10(4):618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10040618
Chicago/Turabian StyleManuelian, Carmen L.; Penasa, Mauro; da Costa, Luciana; Burbi, Sara; Righi, Federico; De Marchi, Massimo. 2020. "Organic Livestock Production: A Bibliometric Review" Animals 10, no. 4: 618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10040618
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