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Top 300+ Ideas For Research Paper Topics in 2024

Updated 28 Aug 2024

Some say the most difficult part of writing a text – is to start. But topic selection even precedes this starting point. This activity takes off a lot of time, and sometimes, imagination just doesn’t work in your favor. That’s where our list of best research paper topics will be useful.

Our  research paper writing service collected the most unhacked and powerful ideas to turn the average piece of writing into a research paper. Discover  what is a research paper and how to choose suitable and interesting research topics with our help. 

Writing a research topic on your own requires either producing one from scratch (based on your interests and goals and, potentially, on some brainstorming) or getting inspiration from a number of sources, like preassembled topic lists, course material, teachers, real-life, news headlines, published research in the respective field, etc.

What are the 3 Types of Research Questions?

Before formulating your research questions ideas, note that there are 3 important types of research questions:

Descriptive – these employ careful and comprehensive observation of a phenomenon/ event, subject, trait, etc. in order to characterize it in detail and to reveal important/ interesting/ undescribed aspects or patterns potentially.

Causal – these investigate whether altering some variables leads to changes in other variables, suggesting a causal relationship.

Comparative – these look into similarities and differences between two or more entities.

What is a Good Research Paper Topic?

Good research paper topics are characterized by several features that make them suitable for engaging and successful research papers. Features that tend to characterize good research questions are as follows:

specific and concrete – investigation goals and (expected results) have to be clear and focused

original – investigating aspects/ entities/ relationships that have not been researched before

highly important /impactful for the community/ society/ a professional field.

highly relevant for potential readers/ reviewers

trending – emerging disciplines/ topics spark more interest due to their novelty and yet unexplored potential

Choosing an appropriate topic influences various components of the research process, including the research question and methodology, ultimately affecting the quality and relevance of the findings.

College Research Paper Topics

• The bias in the selection of the college internships and scholarships
• The problems of reverse discrimination in post-college employment
• Should multicultural education concepts be implemented at a greater depth?
• The drug and alcohol abuse on college campuses
• Does social media help students to find appropriate information and learn?
• The psychological disorders and the support groups in modern colleges
• Should people with ADHD and Autism be separated from the other students?
• The art of college political campaigns
• Pros and cons of religious colleges
• Should college athletes be paid and provided with additional advantages?
• The Influence of Social Media on College Students' Academic Performance and Well-being
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Online Learning Platforms in Higher Education
• The Role of College Education in Fostering Entrepreneurial Skills
• The Impact of Student Loan Debt on Career Choices Among Graduates
• Analyzing the Shift in College Admissions Criteria in the Post-COVID Era

Health Research Paper Topics

• The challenges of deafness and communication difficulties among special needs students
• The concept of global health security
• The ways to decrease household air pollution
• How the information about infectious diseases is distributed online
• Should people be allowed to know more about climate change issues?
• The privacy factor and the personal health issues
• The role of fitness ads in exercising practices
• The healthy food standards are not always unbiased
• The role of social media in the medical care system
• The psychological aspect in the perception of allergies
• The Long-term Effects of COVID-19 on Respiratory Health
• Mental Health Outcomes of Prolonged Social Media Use Among Adolescents
• The Efficacy of Plant-based Diets in Preventing Chronic Diseases
• The Role of Telemedicine in Improving Accessibility to Healthcare
• Analyzing the Impact of Sleep Quality on Daily Cognitive Functioning

Research Paper Topics on Medicine

• Is life-sustaining therapy needed when it’s futile?
• The role of placebo treatment
• How to avoid animal testing?
• Pros and contras of medical marijuana
• Is being a vegetarian useful for child’s health?
• How obesity affects our health?
• Vaccines for kids: their usefulness or damage
• Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?
• Do doctors turn their patients into drug addicts?
• Advancements in Gene Editing: Ethical Implications and Future Prospects
• The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Diagnostic Medicine
• Personalized Medicine: Tailoring Drug Therapies to Genetic Profiles
• The Impact of Microbiome Diversity on Human Health
• Stem Cell Therapy: Current Applications and Ethical Considerations
• The Challenges and Successes of Vaccine Development in the 21st Century

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Education Research Paper Topics

• How can standardized tests improve education?
• Does college graduates make more money?
• Should education be cheaper?
• How will modern technologies change the way of teaching in the future?
• The creation of particular learning methods for blind children
• Social networking and school
• Metal detectors at schools
• The effects of contemporary teaching methods
• The role of technology in lesson planning
• How to manage bullies and take actions against bullying at education institutions?
• The Effects of Bilingual Education on Cognitive Development in Children
• Evaluating the Long-term Impact of Early Childhood Education Programs
• The Role of Technology in Enhancing Special Education
• Standardized Testing: Measuring Intelligence or Memorization?
• The Influence of Teacher-Student Relationships on Academic Achievement

Read also: 150+ Best Sociology Research Topics

Environmental Research Paper Topics

• How to reduce global warming?
• How to stop wasting paper and save trees?
• Can overpopulation be managed?
• Should more films about environmental issues be produced?
• Human impacts on forests
• Underground effects of earthquakes
• How to elaborate the optimal adaptation of buildings threatened by hurricanes?
• Is it possible to predict hurricane impacts?
• Is nuclear power safe for humans?
• How dangerous is GMO food?
• Assessing the Impact of Urban Sprawl on Local Ecosystems
• The Effectiveness of Plastic Ban Policies on Ocean Health
• Carbon Capture Technology: Viability and Potential in Mitigating Climate Change
• The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Biodiversity Conservation
• Analyzing the Environmental Consequences of Fast Fashion

Research Topics on Entertainment and Sport

• Are social networks good for our society?
• Do violent video games make kids angry and cruel?
• Is it necessary to forbid using animals for entertainment?
• Do beauty contests set the non-achievable beauty standards?
• Are newspapers going to be replaced by online sources of information?
• How gaming consoles influence the youth?
• Should women be allowed to compete against men?
• What television programs should be banned?
• How tv shows impose fake moral standards?
• Can the use of social media, such as Facebook, lower teens’ self-esteem?
• The Psychological Impact of Competitive Sports on Young Athletes
• The Influence of Celebrity Endorsements on Consumer Behavior
• E-Sports: The Rise of Competitive Gaming and Its Recognition as a Legitimate Sport
• The Role of Sports in Promoting Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding
• The Economic Impact of Major Sporting Events on Host Cities

Research Paper Topics on Media and Communication

• Should the media programming of ads aimed at children be made illegal?
• The role of mediation in the media
• Should bloggers be considered as journalists?
• The ethical side of modern news reports
• The freedom of speech online
• The copyright law restrictions and the vague concepts
• The importance of psychology and communicative skills in journalism
• The role of gender in interpersonal communication
• The modern standards of nonverbal communication
• The negative influence of Instagram and body image distortion
• The Evolution of News Consumption: Impact of Social Media on Traditional Media
• The Role of Media in Shaping Public Opinion During Political Campaigns
• The Ethics of Surveillance and Privacy in Digital Communication
• The Effects of Smartphone Usage on Face-to-Face Communication Skills
• Virtual Reality: The Future of Immersive Journalism

Research Paper Topics on Politics

• Should the drinking age be lowered?
• Should adults have the right to carry a concealed handgun?
• More gun control laws should be enacted
• How can the international community prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons?
• How can ethnic killings be stopped?
• Current prospect for peace between Israel and the Palestinians
• What world would be like without wars?
• How to avoid workforce reduction?
• Should the death penalty be allowed?
• Is socialism possible?
• The Influence of Social Media on Political Mobilization and Public Protests
• Campaign Finance Reform: The Effects on Political Representation and Elections
• The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Shaping Global Policy
• The Impact of Populism on Traditional Political Party Systems
• Cybersecurity in Elections: Protecting the Integrity of Democracy

Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Is autism a disease or a development idiosyncrasy?
• How to forecast and shape behavioral patterns?
• How to manage child violence?
• How to deal with a mental breakdown?
• The impact of classical music on the work of the brain
• How insomnia affects our health?
• How bad dreams influence our mood?
• Is stress really harmful?
• How depression impacts the immune system?
• Intellectually gifted people: how is it possible?
• The Psychological Effects of Social Isolation in the Digital Age
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs. Mindfulness: Comparative Outcomes in Treating Anxiety
• The Role of Resilience in Recovery from Trauma
• The Impact of Parenting Styles on Child Personality Development
• Neuroplasticity: How Learning and Experience Shape Brain Function

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Science & Technology Research Paper Ideas

• How is light being used to treat cancer and other diseases?
• What is the current evidence that Mars has had water and maybe life?
• Can nanomedicine potentially extend the human lifespan?
• What is the future of computing and artificial intelligence?
• The role cryogenics may play in future
• Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?
• Is it beneficial for wild animals to have interactions with people?
• What evidence do we have that CMB is the result of the big bang?
• How will self-driving cars change the way people live?
• Can using system like bitcoin help protect identity theft?
• The Potential of CRISPR and Gene Therapy in Curing Genetic Diseases
• Nanotechnology in Medicine: The Next Frontier for Drug Delivery Systems
• The Role of Quantum Computing in the Future of Cybersecurity
• The Ethical Implications of Humanoid Robots in Society
• Renewable Energy Technologies: Assessing the Efficiency and Sustainability of Solar Power Solutions

Research Topics Ideas on Culture

• A new comprehension of past events
• The origin of racial discrimination
• The roots of antisemitism
• The impact of advertisements and commercials on modern art
• The most remarkable cultural achievements of the 20th century and their influence on our society
• Cultural revolutions throughout history
• How pop culture trends influence youth?
• Should pregnant celebrities be exposed on magazine’s covers?
• Why was Greek cultural influence so important for the ancient Mediterranean world?
• Why was the Victorian period a time of cultural change?
• Cultural Impact on Climate Change Response: A Comparative Study
• The Preservation of Folklore and Oral Traditions in the Digital Age
• Cross-Cultural Communication: Overcoming Language and Ethical Barriers
• The Influence of Globalization on Indigenous Cultures
• Cultural Diplomacy and Its Role in International Relations

Research Paper Topics on Math

• The influence of algorithms
• Is it possible to build a winning monopoly strategy?
• Why is 'x' the unknown?
• How math changed the world?
• What's the solution to the McDonald's math problem?
• How do math geniuses understand extremely hard math concepts so quickly?
• Should high school math contests be banned?
• What is the relationship between music and math?
• Are math formulas ever used in real life?
• What are some of the most confusing math problems ever?
• The Role of Mathematics in Cryptography and Cybersecurity
• Mathematical Models in Predicting Pandemic Outcomes: A Case Study of COVID-19
• The Application of Game Theory in Economic and Social Decision Making
• Chaos Theory and Its Implications in Weather Forecasting and Climate Science
• The Impact of Big Data on the Evolution of Statistical Methods and Theories

Research Paper Topics on Business

• How do dirty business tactics work?
• Can business be started without money?
• Notorious business leaders
• Entrepreneurship and family business
• Ethical decision making in everyday work situations
• What are the most effective strategies for promoting a small business?
• Is it worth it to expand the business into a new region or country?
• How to build a successful startup
• The role of international business and sustainable development
• The impact of climate change on international business strategies
• Corporate Social Responsibility: Measuring the Impact on Business Performance
• The Gig Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for the Modern Workforce
• Innovative Business Models in the Age of Sustainable Development
• The Influence of Organizational Culture on Employee Productivity and Satisfaction
• The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Shaping Consumer Behavior and Marketing Strategies

Research Paper Topics For Middle School

• Is going vegan the healthiest choice for you?
• Is the greenhouse effect artificial or natural?
• The causes, effects, and consequences of earthquakes
• How much computer games can one play without getting addicted
• Princess Diana and her dynasty
• Why is competition so critical for humans?
• How did poetry evolve?
• Methods used by ancient sailors to navigate the globe
• Gender roles in children’s books and cartoons
• Who is the greatest general who has lived on the planet?
• The Science Behind Video Games: How Gaming Affects Reflexes and Learning
• The History and Cultural Significance of a Popular Holiday
• The Impact of Recycling Programs in Schools
• Animal Habitats: How Urban Development Affects Local Wildlife
• The Role of Social Media in Modern Communication Among Teens

High School Research Paper Ideas

• The ways to address drug addiction cases in high school
• The physical vs digital communications
• The body image and the K-Pop culture
• The importance of school volunteering and social work
• The changes to the academic process due to Covid-19
• The legacy of the Trail of Tears
• The role of motivation in becoming a better student
• The role of books in print and the libraries
• The ways to improve school safety
• The role of parental involvement in school work
• Exploring the Psychological Effects of Social Media on Teen Self-Esteem
• The Physics of Sports: Analyzing the Science Behind Athletic Performance
• Climate Change and Its Effects on Local Ecosystems
• The Evolution of Language in the Digital Age
• The Rise of Cryptocurrency: Economic Education and the Future of Money

History Research Paper Topics

• What were the impacts of World War II on the rights of women?
• What factors initiated the WWII
• Is liberalism the most optimal solution?
• What were the consequences of women suffrage movements
• What was the impact of Martin Luther King’s protest against the Catholic church
• What is the most effective military strategy of all time
• How has Asian art influenced contemporary art
• How have different monetary systems affected the development of humanity
• What is the correlation between the Roman and Greek culture?
• Aztec empire and its architecture
• The Role of Women in World War II and Its Impact on Gender Roles
• The Influence of the Silk Road on the Cultural Exchange between East and West
• The Effects of the Cold War on Space Exploration Competition
• The Historical Accuracy of Popular Historical Films: A Case Study
• The Impact of the Printing Press on the Renaissance and European Society

Art Research Paper Ideas

• The reasons why digital museums must be present and made available
• The peculiarities of the Flemish artists
• Should Japanese anime be considered as a separate art form?
• The role of Photoshop and similar digital solutions in the perception of modern art
• The history of photography and the artistic expression forms
• The challenges of the modern artists during social distancing times
• The Middle Eastern perception of color and the light
• Ancient Rome's role in the creation of the sculptures
• Should the artists be allowed to represent their works in public parks?
• The importance of art education in middle schools
• The Evolution of Street Art and Its Acceptance into Mainstream Art Culture
• The Influence of Digital Media on Traditional Painting Techniques
• The Role of Patronage in the Development of Renaissance Art
• The Psychological Impact of Color in Abstract Art
• Cultural Representation and Diversity in Modern Art Museums

Literature Research Paper Topics

• The American dream literature
• How does harry potter reflects the ideal of the time
• Can you show a new aspect of prose based on the independent investigation
• The prose of women suffrage movements
• The dawn of literature on modern society
• Why do authors use metaphors and similes
• Evaluate and discuss the allegory of 2 random novels
• What factors are helpful in allowing you to identify the genre of a novel you are reading
• Is fanfiction considered an independent literature
• Romance and sex in Renaissance
• Fiction as an instrument of propaganda
• The Representation of Gender Roles in Victorian Literature
• Postcolonial Voices: How Literature Has Shaped National Identity
• The Journey Motif in Classic American Road Novels
• Dystopian Visions: What Modern Dystopian Literature Tells Us About Today's Society

Law Research Paper Topics

• How is the Islamic law perceived around the globe
• Is ECOLEX a pathway to environmental law
• Why is it critical to learn the GATT documents?
• What does the European patent office do?
• Mass communication law
• Impact of women’s authority in different countries on the planet
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the international criminal law court tools
• Detailed analysis and report of the comparative criminal procedure
• Exciting outtakes from the inter-American human rights library
• Does the US copyright office really help writers defend their businesses?
• The Impact of International Law on Human Rights Practices in Developing Countries
• Cyber Law: The Challenges of Regulating Online Behavior and Privacy
• Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Age: Balancing Innovation and Protection
• The Effectiveness of Rehabilitation in Juvenile Justice Systems
• Comparative Analysis of Gun Control Legislation and Its Impact on Violent Crime Rates

Religion Research Paper Topics

• The Role of Religion in Modern Secular Societies
• Interfaith Dialogue: Benefits and Challenges in a Pluralistic Society
• The Influence of Religious Beliefs on Ethical Decision-Making in Business
• Religion and Politics: An Analysis of Their Intersections in Contemporary World Affairs
• The Impact of Religious Education on Tolerance and Cultural Understanding
• The Evolution of Religious Practices and Their Adaptation in the Digital Age
• The Psychological Effects of Religious Rituals and Traditions
• Comparative Study of Creation Myths Across Different Cultures
• The Role of Women in Organized Religions: A Historical Perspective
• Secularization: The Decline of Religious Influence in Western Societies
• Religious Extremism: Understanding the Causes and Seeking Solutions
• The Impact of Pilgrimage on Religious and Spiritual Life
• Religious Symbols in Public Spaces: Freedom of Expression or a Call for Regulation?
• The Relationship Between Religion and Morality in Contemporary Ethical Debates
• The Effects of Globalization on Indigenous Religions and Spiritual Practices

Argumentative Research Paper Topics

• Should education be made free for everyone?
• The influencers and bloggers cannot be considered as a job
• The role of military service is the way towards maturity
• Should Internet access be limited during college lectures?
• The death penalty service is not an ethical solution
• Fashion industry creates a bad influence on young people
• The Fairplay concept should be rewarded financially
• Should tobacco be made illegal indoors?
• Religious differences often become the cause of wars
• The majority of mobile applications represent the invasion of privacy
• Universal Basic Income: Economic Savior or Road to Dependency?
• Mandatory Vaccinations: Public Health Requirement or Personal Choice Infringement?
• The Death Penalty: A Necessary Deterrent or a Violation of Human Rights?
• Climate Change Policies: Economic Hindrance or Long-term Investment?
• Animal Testing in Medical Research: Ethical Consideration or Scientific Necessity?

These are the 200+ topics on various subjects, which you might find useful when creating your own. In case you need help aside from creating topics, you can also order the original research on Politics, Media & Communication, to do my Math homework , Law, and even Nursing papers for sale on nursing essay writing service Edubirdie.

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How to Choose a Good Research Paper Topic?

While it may seem challenging to come up with a good research paper topic as you try your best to narrow things down, the trick is to choose something that influences you because you know it well and can support your arguments with relevant evidence. When you write a research paper, the subject should be well-structured and relevant to your thesis statement. Always take time to research the list of sources to compose your topic sentences as well to make them relate to your thesis part. It’s always best to check a good research paper introduction example before you start working on the paper and choosing your topic, or contact our essay writing service for help. Conducting preliminary research is essential at this stage to gauge the availability of information and the feasibility of potential topics. Here are the steps to consider:

Start With Observing Your Interests.

If you are confused with a variety of interesting topics for writing a creative essay, it’s better to decide what interests you the most. Don’t stick to easy research paper topics just to complete the task fast. If you are allowed to freely choose what to write an essay about, use the opportunity to create something unique. Write down the list of your interests and break down every idea into small certain topics. When you have a list in front of your eyes, it will be easier to make up your mind and start considering a particular issue.

Then you should examine what aspect of the topic is preferable for you to outline in your research paper. A list will save you here again. Use pros/cons template to include all the arguments and objections to the issues.

Come Up With an Argumentative Research Question.

The most challenging part of choosing a competitive research paper topic is finding an aspect that poses some importance for your course and the subject per se. While it may seem that it is sufficient to make a general statement, your argumentation should include a clear research question. Consider asking yourself why you have chosen a particular topic and how your research will make it clearer or provide innovative solutions.

Study Available Research Topic Ideas.

Since we have already mentioned the dangers of choosing something too broad, it is vital to narrow things down and brainstorm the list of possible research paper ideas that deal with the same subject. In other words, you can write down at least five different subjects and see whether you can find sufficient information to support them with the sources or statistical data. Remember the importance of your topic’s wording!

Compose Strong Thesis Statement.

It must be done at the same time as you choose your research paper topic because these two concepts must be interconnected. Engaging with the writing process, including refining the topic, conducting thorough research, and developing a strong thesis statement, directly influences the overall effectiveness and enjoyment of crafting academic work. Make sure that you have the list of sources prepared in advance to incorporate relevant information in your body paragraphs. As always, they must be the supporting evidence for your thesis statement’s idea and the research purpose.

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Written by David Kidwell

David is one of those experienced content creators from the United Kingdom who has a high interest in social issues, culture, and entrepreneurship. He always says that reading, blogging, and staying aware of what happens in the world is what makes a person responsible. He likes to learn and share what he knows by making things inspiring and creative enough even for those students who dislike reading.

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• Published: 15 September 2024

Understanding the landscape of education for sustainable development in China: a bibliometric review and trend analysis of multicluster topics(1998–2023)

• Weiqi Tian 1 ,
• Jingshen Ge 2 ,
• Xu Zheng 2 ,
• Yu Zhao 1 ,
• Tingliang Deng 1 &
• Huijun Yan 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  1213 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

• Social policy

This study examined Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in China spanning over two decades(1998–2023). Assisted with text mining tool of Itginsight, by combining latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) modeling with social network analysis(SNA) and sentiment analysis, this study constructed a visualized analysis of the research status of ESD and explores the topics distribution and sentiment trends of Chinese scholars regarding ESD. The analysis shows that studies concerning ESD are displaying a “trending-declining” tendency with ample space for greater expansion. Existing researches have predominantly exhibited a predilection towards objectives, ideologies, methodologies, and themes concerning ESD. After further modeling, mapping multicluster topics, and conducting sentiment analysis on highly cited literature, it is found the focus of this discipline lies more on environmental education from different aspects, and an overriding sense of positivity concerning the inherent potential of ESD to drive transformative societal change is found. Despite the intricacies of various research themes, the scholarly consensus is that ESD represents a vital and indispensable means of addressing the pressing environmental and social challenges of our epoch, which should be optimized both theoretically and practically.

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Introduction.

Since the proposal of “sustainable development,” its meaning and scope have undergone dynamic evolution. Initially introduced by Carl von Carlowitz in his work Silvicultura Oeconomi to describe the sustainable management of German forestry (Enders and Remig, 2014 ), the concept has stimulated extensive discussions about human development models (Klarin 2018 ).

In 1972, Stockholm hosted the “World Conference on Human Environment” (Garcia and Newton, 1994 ; Fonseca González, 2011 ; Assefa, 2008 ), marking the first global conference on environmental issues and reflecting a growing worldwide interest in conservation. In March 1980, the United Nations formulated the “World Conservation Strategy,” which initially proposed the idea of sustainable development (McCormick, 1986 ). In 1992, the “Conference on Environment and Development” in Rio de Janeiro recognized sustainable development as a new development philosophy (Redclift, 2002 ; Johnson, 2001 ; Wirth, 1994 ; Foo and Short, 1992 ). The United Nations further promoted global sustainable development at the “World Summit on Sustainable Development” in Johannesburg in 2002 (Foo, 2013 ; Doran, 2002 ; Hens and Nath, 2005 ; Green et al., 2005 ). The “United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development” in Rio de Janeiro established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Open Working Group (Camacho, 2015 ; Hák et al., 2016 ; Ford, 2015 ; Kamau et al., 2018 ; Kanie and Biermann, 2017 ; Thérien and Pouliot, 2020 ), further advancing global efforts.

The core of sustainable development involves managing and protecting natural resources to meet current and future needs (Garcia, 2000 ). This encompasses environmental integrity, technical feasibility, economic viability, and social acceptance (Ciegis et al., 2009 ; Bhagat, 2011 ; Imran et al., 2014 ). The widely accepted definition by the Brundtland Commission describes it as development that meets present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet theirs (Borowy, 2013 ; Fien and Tilbury, 2002 ; Jacobs, 1999 ; Cerin, 2006 ; Dernbach, 1998 ; Dernbach, 2003 ; Stoddart, 2011 ).

China has made concerted efforts to prioritize sustainable development, evidenced by 32 policy documents from the State Council Policy Document Database (2003–2022), notably the “Action Plan for China’s Sustainable Development in the Early 21st Century” (2003) (McBeath and Wang, 2008 ; Zhao et al., 2002 ). Subsequent policies span various sectors, offering robust guidance for sustainable development.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), an integral part of sustainability defined by the international community, aims to meet present needs without compromising those of future generations (Holdgate, 1987 ). ESD has rapidly grown in China (Little and Green, 2009 ; Grosseck et al., 2019 ; Vare and Scott, 2007 ; Rieckmann, 2018 ; Siraj-Blatchford et al., 2010 ; Lu et al., 2023 ), although there is a relative lack of empirical and theoretical literature in China’s unique context. Despite this, various ESD initiatives are implemented at multiple levels.

Our study tracks ESD development in China’s academic community by conducting a bibliometric analysis of entries over the past 20 years in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, also known as China National Knowledge Internet, which is a valuable resource for conducting literature reviews due to its extensive coverage of Chinese academic publications. CNKI plays a significant role in facilitating research by providing access to a vast amount of scholarly work from China, which is particularly important given China’s substantial contribution to global research output (Schar et al., 2020 ). This is especially relevant in fields such as environmental science, where understanding local contexts and research is essential for effective analysis and decision-making (Zhao et al., 2023 ).

The increasing global emphasis on sustainable development mandates an urgent understanding of how ESD is progressing, especially in rapidly developing countries like China. By comprehensively analyzing ESD literature, we can identify gaps, challenges, and future research pathways, making this research timely and crucial. For the global community, understanding China’s approach to ESD provides comparative insights, facilitates cross-cultural knowledge exchange, and contributes to collective sustainability efforts. Moreover, as educational frameworks evolve, aligning them with SDGs becomes increasingly important for fostering a globally conscious citizenry capable of addressing future challenges.

By presenting a holistic picture of ESD research and development in China, this study not only contributes to the academic field but also aids policymakers and educators in shaping effective ESD strategies, ultimately promoting sustainability on a broader scale.

Therefore, the research questions for this study are:

What is the current state and thematic distribution of academic research on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in China over the past two decades?

What are the characteristics of academic attitudes and sentiment tendencies toward themes such as education reform and school education within the Chinese academic community?

By analyzing highly cited literature on ESD in China, what research hotspots and future development trends can be identified?

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the context of the world and China

Evolution and expansion of esd: from conceptual framework to global practice.

Before the concept of ESD gained global recognition, environmental education (EE) emerged in the 1970s as a related movement in response to the growing awareness of environmental degradation and development issues. The United Nations proposed an EE framework in the Belgrade Charter (1975) with the aim of increasing public awareness of environmental conditions and related issues, and developing “knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation, and commitment to solve current problems in individual and collective ways and prevent the emergence of new problems” (The United Nations, 1975 ). This framework was further developed in the Tbilisi Declaration (1977), which proposed expanding environmental expression to include “biological, ethical, social, cultural, and economic aspects of environmental issues,” and laid the foundation for EE, and later ESD, in the global paradigm (Hume and Barry, 2015 ).

Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, adopted at the Rio Earth Summit (1992), re-prioritized educational goals towards sustainable development, proposing four educational objectives: “promoting and improving the quality of education, restructuring curricula [towards sustainable development], increasing public awareness of the concept of sustainable development, [and] training the workforce” (The UNESCO, 1992 ). Thus, ESD aims to address concerns about the environment and humanity while meeting the needs of the education and development sectors.

Since 1992, the definition and scope of ESD has continuously expanded. In 2015, the member states of the United Nations (UN) approved a prospective 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is designed to promote sustainability up to the year 2030. This agenda comprises a framework of 17 SDGs encompassing all aspects of sustainability, and encompasses several targets or objectives that are aimed to be achieved by the conclusion of the 2030 decade. Notably, a crucial component of the 2030 Agenda is the inclusion of ESD. According to UNESCO’s definition, ESD aims to “empower learners with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to make wise decisions and responsible actions for environmental integrity, economic viability, and a just society, while respecting cultural diversity” (The United Nations, 2015 ). The adoption of sustainable development can be divided into two main aspects: firstly, realizing the beliefs of stakeholders in sustainable development, that is, using education as a tool to promote global sustainable development (i.e., sustainable development perspective); secondly, over the past decade, establishing education stakeholders who integrate the concept of sustainable development into the education system (i.e., education perspective) (Leicht et al., 2018 ).

Influence of global sustainability objectives on the progress of ESD in China: key milestones

Incubation and emergence phase.

Whether internationally or within China, ESD has its roots in education for environmental protection (Zhang and Shi, 2004 ; Yue and Li, 2023 ; Wang and Xie, 2013 ). The first United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, held in 1972, proclaimed the necessity of educating the younger generation about environmental issues through the Stockholm Declaration. This agenda was further iterated in 1975 through the International EE Program, which led to the articulation of EE objectives in the Tbilisi Declaration of 1977 by UNESCO and UNEP (Berchin et al., 2021 ). Transition towards ESD commenced in 1992 when the UN Conference on Environment and Development proposed “environment and development education”.

Following this global trajectory, China embarked on its journey of environmental protective education between the 1970s and 1990s. In 1972, the first national environmental protection conference marked the commencement of environmental protection and EE in China. The subsequent rollout of EE at various educational levels, the establishment of national EE institutions, and the enactment of the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China established a robust framework for EE that would form the foundation for ESD (Wang and Xie, 2013 ). In 1994, the “Agenda 21” white paper issued by China transcended the content of EE, stipulated the integration of sustainable development into the national education reform process, aligning China’s EE with international norms, and marking the onset towards Sustainable Development Education.

Preliminary formation stage

By the late 1990s, China had formally embarked on the path of ESD. During the initial three to five years, the country was in a transitional phase, evolving from EE to ESD, with the former constituting a crucial part of ESD at the time. Key national events facilitated the transition towards ESD. With the growing importance of ESD on the global stage, China started implementing ESD in 1992. Since 1990, the Ministry of Education has required Chinese general high schools to offer elective courses in EE. To integrate EE content into the compulsory education curriculum plan and subject teaching outline, the textbook “Environmental Protection” was published. Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, China initiated the development of “China Agenda 21” in 1992 (Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 1994 ). In 1996, China identified “developing science and education to revitalize the country and achieve sustainable development” as a national strategy, proposing to shift economic development from extensive to intensive. In the first national report on sustainable development and progress in 1997, China emphasized the importance of environmental protection in the education system to promote the values of sustainable development (People’s Republic of China, 1997 ).

During this period, ESD progressively moved from theory to practice, infiltrating the instructional practices of various teaching institutions. The education of environmental majors in universities was significantly bolstered, with continuous strengthening of program offerings and discipline construction. ESD content permeated classrooms in primary and secondary schools, with specific curriculum guidelines mandating EE. Educators and researchers popularly regarded education as a means to enhance citizen awareness of environmental conservation. In academic research, amidst the unfolding new conceptual system, the majority of literature concentrated on understanding the crux, core values, and localized implementation pathways of ESD, striving to build a comprehensive and macroscopic theoretical framework.

Rapid development stage

In 2002, the 57th General Assembly of the United Nations underscored education as an essential component for the realization of sustainable development and consecutively demarcated 2005–2014 as the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development”. Correspondingly, this phase witnessed accelerated momentum in China’s educational growth in ESD. During this epoch, China undertook substantial policy adaptations and structural modifications across diverse educational spectra, progressively achieving systematic perfection in ensuring educational sustainability. Scholarly institutions were intensely involved in the educational reformation process, thereby augmenting the scope of ESD from environmental shield to a more overarching, integrative perspective involving economic, political, and social dimensions. Over this time, the progression of China’s education system has been significantly noteworthy. The nine-year mandatory education system saw widespread adoption, secondary education gravitated towards mass access, and higher education experienced swift democratization. Concurrently, it is important to acknowledge persistent regional variations in educational development, as well as significant disparities in educational access across urban-rural landscapes and among different economic and social strata.

With the rapid growth of sustainable development in China, the ESD concept has integrated elements of Chinese culture, based on UNESCO’s definition. Sustainable development is defined as the scientific knowledge of achieving a sustainable lifestyle, while promoting social, cultural, economic, and environmental change through the development of values and behaviors (Beijing Municipal Education Commission, 2007 ). In 2010, the Ministry of Education released the “Outline of China’s Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010–2020)”, which emphasized the importance of ESD in China’s education system. However, it lacked detailed discussion on ESD and specific implementation plans (Witoszek, 2018 ). The 2011 National Sustainable Development Report further highlights the role of education in sustainable development. The focus of education related to sustainable development has shifted towards education equity, compulsory education, vocational education, and health education (Witoszek, 2018 ).

Sustained innovation stage

The term “ESD” has been included in the category of “strengthening ecological civilization capacity” in the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Education Development (2017)” and has been redefined. The scope of ESD has been narrowed down to education on frugality, conservation, environmental awareness, and the promotion of sustainable development values (The State Council of People’s Republic of China, 2017 ). Initiated during the 2018 National Education Congress, the Chinese authorities proposed creating a comprehensive “Five Educations” talent cultivation system: moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education - holistic development becoming the cornerstone of talent nurturing for the new era. To facilitate these “Five Educations”, in October 2020 the Outline on “Strengthening and improving school physical education in the new era” was released, mandating well-rounded physical education, pairing full complement of PE teachers, and deepening of reforms. Simultaneously, an Outline on “Strengthening and improving school aesthetic education” was released, aimed at embedding aesthetic education throughout, reinforcing students’ aesthetic and humanistic appreciation.

In a concerted effort to construct and advance a high-quality, equitable education system, the Chinese Government has released a series of ESD-oriented policy documents for various educational stages. For preschool education, the release of the “Opinions on Deepening Reform and Standardization of Preschool Education’ and ‘Fourteenth Five-Year Action Plan for Preschool Education Development” signals a pivot from universalism to patching resource gaps. Concurrently, policies for compulsory education, such as the “Opinions on Deepening Educational and Teaching Reforms” and “Compulsory Education Quality Evaluation Guidelines”, offer a comprehensive enhancement to compulsory education quality. Noteworthy reforms in senior secondary education, as exemplified by releases like “Guidance on Advancing Talent Cultivation Reform in Ordinary High Schools”, and “Ordinary High School Quality Evaluation Guidelines”, have activated creativity development.

Similarly, for higher education, continuous adjustments to the discipline and professional directories have occurred, centralized under the implementation of the “Six Excellences and One Top” 2.0 plan, subsequently enriching faculty structures. The “Double Reduction” policy has curtailed the burden of extracurricular homework at compulsory stages, while vocational education has seen rejuvenation with the “Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education”, facilitating the construction of an attractive, modern vocational education system. Overall, these policies underscore China’s commitment to fostering sustainable education.

Emerging Trends in China’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): a recent perspective

Emerging from a swift period of academic development, the ongoing study of ESD in China has been experiencing significant growth in recent years. Delivering a dual narrative, scholars observe a paradigm shift catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted education, and the evolution aided by novel information technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. Prominent academics navigate the sustainable development of education against the backdrop of COVID-19 and post-poverty-alleviation era (Liu, 2021 ; Wei and Yang, 2020 ). Concurrently, some scholars analyze AI-enhanced education’s potential opportunities and challenges for fostering sustainable development (Zhang et al., 2019 ).

Secondly, policy-centric studies leveraging impactful national macro-policy like China’s Education Modernization 2035 plan, “double reduction” policy, rural revitalization strategy, and community of shared future of mankind investigates the advancement of China’s ESD. Economical effects and class reactions to “double reduction” policy’s impact on educational ecology and society have been explored by some scholars respectively (Zhang et al., 2023 ; Yang, 2022 ). Du ( 2022 ) highlights the crucial role of sustainable higher education for developing a shared future for humankind, while some other scholars (Gu and Teng, 2019 ) demonstrates how China’s Education Modernization 2035 plan provides methodological and substantial value towards achieving global ESD goals.

Thirdly, progress and trends in international ESD have been attentively monitored by researchers, and others, investigating the ESD models of developed nations like Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, and international organizations, seeking a path for localization of practices (Yuan and Wang, 2023 ; Wu et al., 2023 ; Tong and Yu, 2023 ). Notably, Shi Xueyi ( 2023 ) presents a comprehensive review of the work spearheaded by UNESCO in the education informatization field, and Yue and Li ( 2023 ) predicts the panorama of global ESD progression based on analyses of UNESCO’s series of reports. Leaning into UNESCO’s “Future Higher Education” project and related policy reports, Liang et al. ( 2023b ) forecasts the development goals and pathways of future higher education, itemizing possible directions for changes (Liang et al. 2023a ).

Research design

Data collection.

To ensure the credibility and efficiency of the resource, taking CNKI as the database, by advanced searching, this research is conducted on the basis of CSSCI reference resource, which represents the highest level and most cutting-edge research results in China. The data selection for the bibliometric review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach as a systematic strategy to search for articles (Chen and Pang, 2022 ). The PRISMA method is widely adopted as the primary approach to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Page et al., 2021).

The advanced search was carefully structured, with the topic elements connected internally by the operator “+” and different search items integrated using the Boolean operator “AND.” This logical structuring ensured precise retrieval of relevant literature spanning titles, abstracts, and topical keywords. The data extraction process followed the four-step PRISMA protocol: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion, as depicted in Fig. 1 .

Flowchart of data collection.

A critical aspect of this study was the justification for excluding certain groups of documents, focusing solely on “articles” and “reviews”. This selectivity was driven by the need to maintain a rigorous academic standard, as peer-reviewed articles and reviews undergo meticulous scrutiny, ensuring reliability and validity. By excluding interviews, school profiles, news reports, book reviews, conference notices, and unrelated journal literature, the research streamlined its focus on scientifically robust and systematically reviewed content. Books and other document types were also excluded due to their often inconsistent peer review processes, which could introduce variability and potential bias, thereby compromising the study’s overall methodological rigor.

The search criteria for this study combined “sustainable development” and “education” as keywords, encompassing titles, abstracts, and topics. This focus was guided by two primary facets of ESD adoption: the sustainable development (SD) perspective, which involves stakeholders viewing education as a means to promote global sustainability, and the education perspective, which pertains to the incorporation of sustainable development ideas into education systems (Leicht et al., 2018 ). The study types were limited to “articles” or “reviews”, after manually excluding interviews, school profiles, news reports, book reviews, conference notices, and journal literatures unrelated to the subject, a total of 1092 valid sample literature meet the criteria were obtained from 1998 to May 2023.

Research methodology

We used the text mining tool of Itginsight and Microsoft Excel 2019 to perform further bibliometric analysis and visualization. All associated data with annual publishment trends, journals and prolific institutions were imported into Excel for quantitative and dynamics trends. Itginsight was used to draw the knowledge map, and the hot spots and frontiers of ESD research were visually analyzed. (Wang et al., 2022 ).

Furthermore, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) (Blei et al., 2003 ) modeling was used for content analysis, targeting highly cited papers on the subject of ESD research, and we aimed to determine the basic value, main framework, and main content in respect of ESD. LDA is a typical unsupervised learning model that applies machine learning methods to statistically count word frequency, generate a multiple layer probability distribution composed of keywords and comment topics, and then implement classification (Gao and Lin, 2022 ). LDA belongs to a Bayesian model that assumes that the statistical distribution of topics and vocabulary conforms to a multinomial distribution, representing the generated topic random variable. For the k-th topic, let \({\vec{\mu }}_{k}\) represent the random variable of the generated word. The topic probability distribution of the m-th document and the word distribution of the k-th topic of the LDA model meet the following equation:

\(\vec{\alpha }\) and \(\vec{\beta }\) are hyperparameters of the distribution, \({\vec{\theta }}_{m}\) and \({\vec{\varphi }}_{k}\) are both random variables. The joint probability distribution of LDA is as follows:

Where, \({\lambda }_{m,n}\) represents the topic corresponding to the nth word, \({\vec{\varphi }}_{{\lambda }_{m,n}}\) represents the word distribution corresponding to the topic \({\lambda }_{m,n}\) , and \({\mu }_{m,n}\) represents the word sampled from the word distribution \({\vec{\varphi }}_{{\lambda }_{m,n}}\) .

LDA is a widely used approach for identifying topics and clustering large-scale datasets in the field of natural language processing. In this study, we utilized the open-source Python library called Scikit-Learn (sklearn) to implement LDA topic identification (Gao and Lin, 2022 ). During the LDA topic classification process, the optimal number of topics needs to be determined by evaluating perplexity, and then conducting topic analysis accordingly. Perplexity is a commonly used metric to evaluate the performance of the LDA topic model, whose calculation formula is presented as follows:

Where, in Eq. ( 3 ), \(P(D)\) represents perplexity, where D denotes the testing set in the corpus. Furthermore, M indicates the number of documents in the corpus, N m represents the number of words in document m , and in Eq. ( 4 ), \(p({\mu }_{m})\) denotes the probability of word \({\mu }_{m}\) .

Based on topic modeling of the most highly cited works from the 1092 documents, by employing Social Network Analysis (SNA), this paper utilize the co-occurrence relationship between topic keywords of the most highly cited works to extract the network of relationships between hotspot topics, as well as between topics and feature words, with the help of the software of Ucinet, which is a comprehensive package for the analysis of social network data. By analyzing the co-occurrence patterns of topics and features, we can gain insights into how they are related and how they influence one another. This approach helps us better understand the underlying structures and dynamics of textual data. Furthermore, sentiment analysis was employed to quantify researchers’ emotional tendencies towards specific topics. By categorizing researchers’ emotions as positive, negative, or neutral, we can gain a more detailed understanding of researchers’ attitudes and focus towards different topics and how these attitudes evolve over time. SNA provides support for analyzing the importance of topic keywords and related words, and the co-occurrence of words can indirectly reflect their associative relationships. This approach helps to recognize the core topics in the retrieved literature and the social network relationships between topics, which is beneficial for discovering the associative relationships among topics. The sentiment analysis helps to identify researchers’ subjective emotions, opinions, and attitudes from textual data. In this study, Rostcm6 is used to conduct the sentiment analysis.

Research process

The research process for this study comprises four meticulously planned steps(as shown in Fig. 2 ) to ensure comprehensive and systematic data analysis.

Flow chart of analysis.

Firstly, the software Itginsight was downloaded and installed, followed by extensive debugging to ensure optimal performance. This initial phase was crucial, as it guaranteed the software’s readiness for handling subsequent data processing and analysis tasks seamlessly.

Secondly, research data was obtained from the CNKI database, specifically focusing on CSSCI (Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index) reference resources, which represent the highest level of academic research in China. The extracted data was then transformed into a format compatible with Itginsight and the LDA model, facilitating effective bibliometric and text analysis.

In the third phase, Excel and Itginsight were employed to conduct a detailed bibliometric analysis of the study results. This involved calculating keyword co-occurrence frequency and centrality, producing keyword clustering maps, and identifying dynamic trends. Timeline maps were also generated to reveal the evolution characteristics of the research landscape, evolution hotspots, and to infer future research trends. These visualizations provided a comprehensive overview of how key themes and topics in ESD have developed over time.

The fourth phase involved constructing a citation space network by mapping the interconnectedness of normative citations among authors in the research field. This network analysis offered valuable insights into the central research themes that capture scholars’ concerns and interests. Highly cited literature was analyzed to identify influential works and prevailing academic discourse. The LDA model was utilized for text clustering, which included data pre-processing steps such as data cleaning, word segmentation, and the removal of stop words. This process enabled the identification and exploration of latent topics, revealing topic distributions and facilitating the classification of literature. SNA was conducted using the Ucinet64 tool to explore relationships between topics and feature words of highly cited works. This analysis provided a visual representation of how different research themes and keywords are interconnected, highlighting significant patterns and collaborations within the academic community.

To assess the emotional trends of Chinese scholars on “ESD,” sentiment analysis was performed at the final phase by using Rostcm6 software. This analysis utilized “Baidu” emotion dictionary to detect researchers’ attitudes towards this study and their research focus. Sentiment analysis provided an additional layer of understanding, revealing whether the discourse around ESD was predominantly positive, neutral, or negative.

Visual analysis

Post analysis.

The application of bibliometric methods to analyze the annual publication trends in ESD has yielded a nuanced understanding of scholarly engagement over different periods. By employing rigorous statistical analysis, a trend chart (Fig. 3 ) was generated, illustrating the trajectory of published articles in the field, facilitating projections of future research dynamics. Our review indicates that ESD research has been continuously documented since 1998, with a cumulative total of 1023 articles published in CSSCI core journals indexed in the CNKI database from 1998 to 2022. These findings elucidate scholars’ sustained interest and evolving focus within ESD, providing an empirical foundation for future scholarly inquiries.

Publication trend chart.

A particularly promising viewpoint is the steady increase in ESD publications, reflecting the growing recognition of the field’s importance. This trend underscores the need for ongoing empirical research to adapt and respond to emerging global challenges, enhancing educational strategies that support sustainable development objectives.

Analyzing the annual publication statistics and trends within the field of ESD, as depicted in Fig. 3 , is pivotal for comprehending the evolution and impact of research in this domain. Bibliometric analysis, which involves both quantitative and qualitative evaluation of publications through statistical methodologies, plays a crucial role in this process (Zhang et al., 2023 ). The resultant data reveals three distinct stages in the progression of ESD research.

The first stage (1998–2009) demonstrates a steady increase in publication volume, culminating in a peak of 75 papers by 2009. A notable spike occurred in 2007, with an increase of 25 papers, signifying burgeoning interest and recognition of ESD’s relevance during this phase. This upward trajectory underscores the foundational growth period wherein the discourse around sustainable education began to solidify and gain academic traction.

The second stage (2010–2018) reveals a gradual decline in publication numbers, despite a minor resurgence from 2011 to 2013. This period concludes with a significant drop, reaching a low of 22 papers in 2018. These fluctuations may reflect shifting academic priorities, economic constraints impacting research funding, or evolving focuses within the broader educational and environmental landscapes. Analyzing the underlying causes of this downturn is essential for identifying and mitigating barriers to sustained research efforts in ESD, highlighting the need for targeted funding and policy support to invigorate scholarly activities.

The final phase (2019–2022) shows a modest revival, with publication numbers stabilizing within the range of 20 to 40 papers annually. This period of stabilization, though characterized by only gradual growth, indicates a renewed, albeit cautious, scholarly commitment to exploring ESD themes. The relative stagnation in growth during this phase may suggest that while interest remains, there is a need for reinvigorated strategies to enhance research outputs and impact.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint that emerges from this analysis is the interplay between economic, social, and academic factors influencing publication trends. Understanding these dynamics could lead to innovative approaches for fostering resilient research ecosystems in ESD. For instance, integrating interdisciplinary research frameworks, increasing international collaboration, and securing diverse funding sources could amplify the field’s growth. These strategies not only ensure the continuity of research but also enhance the collective capacity to address complex sustainability challenges through education.

The current findings illustrate a discernible trend of overall growth in research on ESD during the initial decades of the 21st century, segmented by distinctive fluctuations. The field experienced a pronounced expansion phase followed by a notable bottleneck period in the 2010s, characterized by a substantial decline in scholarly output. Despite this decline, recent years have seen a relatively stable yet slow progression in the volume of related research publications, indicating an area ripe for further advancement.

This temporal analysis sheds light on the varying levels of scholarly attention devoted to ESD across different phases. The initial growth phase underscores the increasing recognition and importance of sustainable education as a critical research area. However, the subsequent decline during the 2010s suggests potential issues such as shifting research priorities, limited funding, or broader economic factors that may have impacted academic focus and productivity.

Understanding the underpinnings of this bottleneck period is crucial for addressing the impediments to sustained research endeavors in ESD. It necessitates a strategic approach to reinvigorate research momentum. Potential strategies could include fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, enhancing funding opportunities, and promoting international research networks. Such initiatives would not only mitigate past challenges but also create a robust framework for future research expansion.

The sluggish yet steady development in recent years signals a stabilized interest, suggesting a readiness for a renewed surge in scholarly activity. The insights garnered from this study offer valuable guidance for predicting future publication trends and highlight the need for a concerted effort to amplify research outputs in ESD. By leveraging innovative research methodologies, expanding educational frameworks, and enhancing institutional support, the field can achieve significant advancements. Thus, this comprehensive analysis not only illuminates past and present dynamics within ESD research but also sets a strategic direction for future inquiries, ensuring the continued evolution and impact of sustainable education worldwide.

Hotspot analysis

Topic generated.

Topic co-occurrence analysis represents an invaluable tool for exploring the topic generated and the interrelationships among research topics in a given field. This technique aids in ascertaining research hotspots, as well as the strength of relationships shared between various research objects. To develop the co-occurrence network analysis between topics, we leveraged Itginsight. Key topics are represented as nodes, with the size of each node corresponding to the frequency of the respective topic within the literature. The lines connecting these nodes delineate the co-occurrence relationships between related topics, with the thickness of the lines indicating the frequency of these co-occurrences.

Table 1 enumerates the top 14 high-frequency keywords (frequency ≥ 7) that serve to underscore the thematic distribution of sustainable education research in China. Frequency indicates the count of each keyword’s occurrence, while centrality measures the node’s influence within the network, providing insights into both the prominence and the interconnectedness of various research themes in ESD. This dual metric approach underscores the criticality and interdependence of these themes, facilitating a nuanced understanding of the research landscape. Notably, the integration of informatization emerges as an innovative fulcrum, enhancing both reach and efficacy in sustainable education.

The analysis of high-frequency keywords, as delineated in Table 1 and visualized through the topic co-occurrence network in Fig. 4 , underscores a range of pivotal themes within the field of sustainable education. Keywords such as “higher education,” “EE,” “quality education,” “physical education,” “ecological civilization,” “basic education,” “humanistic education,” “college students,” “people-oriented,” and “vocational education” signify core research foci. These terms collectively reflect the multifaceted goals, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, and thematic preoccupations intrinsic to sustainable education.

Topic co-occurrence.

The interconnectedness and prevalence of these keywords highlight the necessity of a holistic, interdisciplinary methodology in advancing ESD. For instance, the repeated emphasis on “quality education” and “humanistic education” suggests a broad commitment to fostering inclusive, value-driven learning environments. Simultaneously, the integration of “ecological civilization” and “EE” indicates an ongoing dedication to embedding sustainability within educational curricula.

One of the most creative potential viewpoints lies in the intersection of these themes, specifically the convergence of humanistic and ecological imperatives within higher education and vocational training. This nexus fosters an educational model that not only equips learners with technical skills but also instills a deep-seated respect for sustainable practices and ecological stewardship, positioning future research to explore innovative pedagogical strategies that bridge these crucial elements.

The centrality value indicates the influence exerted by a node on its neighboring ones, affirming “higher education” as the most central node in the co-occurrence network, and consequently underscores its indispensable role in constituting a foundational research area. Moreover, “EE”, “education”, “quality education”, “ecological civilization”, and “people-oriented” exhibit relatively high centrality values (≥0.05), underscoring their significant roles in shaping research trajectories. Notably, certain less frequently occurring keywords demonstrate high centrality values, acting as critical intermediary nodes that merit increased scholarly attention. This suggests a need for comprehensive and multidisciplinary research prioritizing terms like “ecological civilization” and “people-oriented.” Despite moderate centrality values overall, the results underscore substantial potential for expansive and multidimensional investigation into sustainable education, highlighting avenues for future academic endeavors in ESD.

According to the topic node, it can be seen from the color in Fig. 4 that the subject words can be mainly divided into three hot topic word clusters. The red cluster, characterized by terms such as “informatization” and “educational resources”, signifies the pervasiveness and paramount frequency of these concepts. This cluster further encompasses sustainability, environmental protection, the Ministry of Education, teachers, libraries, and learners, underscoring that the thrust towards informatization—a prevailing trend in contemporary development—necessitates integrating high-quality educational resources to advance ESD. This integration mandates collective efforts from educational authorities, including the Ministry of Education, teachers, committees, and learners. The intrinsic emphasis on environmental protection places it as an essential and perpetual theme within ESD exploration.

The purple cluster, dominated by terms like “quality education,” “economy society”, “values”, and “college students”, highlights the significant role of quality education in ESD. This cluster also includes keywords pertaining to teaching staff, teaching quality, and human resources, pointing to the necessity of enhancing the teaching workforce and improving instructional quality to instill sustainable values in college students—a critical endeavor for ESD.

Significantly, the blue cluster, with “lifelong education” as the focal point and terms such as “globalization”, “productivity”, and “knowledge economy”, illustrates the synergetic relationship between ESD and science and technology amidst globalization. This convergence is posited to catalyze the rapid advancement of productive forces and engender new vitality within the knowledge economy, offering a fertile ground for innovative potential. The intertwined evolution of ESD and technological progress, within a global context, emerges as a crucial area for further inquiry and development, potentially yielding transformative impacts on education and sustainable practices globally.

Utilizing Itginsight to generate a heat map depicting the distribution of research topics in ESD, as illustrated in Fig. 4 , offers significant insights into the correlation and intensity of various research themes. The figure’s color gradients—ranging from red to green—indicate the frequency of specific keywords, with the spatial proximity of these terms denoting their interrelatedness. Prominently featured high-frequency keywords include “informatization”, “educational resources”, “quality education”, “economic”, “social”, “values”, “college students”, “environmental protection”, and “sustainability”. This distribution underscores the steadfast prominence of quality education and environmental protection within ESD, affirming their critical roles.

A deeper analysis reveals that quality education and environmental protection are not merely prevalent themes but foundational pillars in the context of ESD. The integration of informatization into ESD highlights a shift toward leveraging digital technologies to enhance the quality and accessibility of education, thus fostering a digitally inclusive educational environment. This transition plays a pivotal role in promoting sustainability, encompassing economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Furthermore, quality education serves as a cornerstone for social equity and economic prosperity, equipping learners with the necessary skills and values to navigate and influence the sustainable paradigm.

The interconnected nature of these keywords also reveals an intrinsic relationship between educational quality and broader socio-economic and environmental sustainability. Informatization acts as a catalyst, accelerating the dissemination and assimilation of sustainable practices. This multidimensional approach supports the hypothesis that advancements in ESD contribute significantly to sustainable development across various sectors. Consequently, this analysis underscores the imperative to continuously innovate and integrate emerging technologies and pedagogies in ESD, ensuring it effectively addresses and adapts to the evolving demands of sustainability.

Topic and featured words

Using Itginsight, we conducted a semantic analysis to identify similar key terms based on term frequency within the titles and abstracts of relevant literature. This methodology facilitated the filtering of topics by automatically recognizing semantically related terms (Mantasiah et al., 2020 ). While keywords, summarized by authors, reflect subjective interpretations based on the title, hierarchical headings, and overall content, they imbue a personal bias (Moreno et al., 2018 ; Zhang et al., 2015 ; Ho et al., 2023 ). Conversely, topics identified through Itginsight provide a more comprehensive and objective reflection of the article’s content. Figure 5 presents a co-occurrence map where keywords are represented by blue nodes and topics by green nodes. By analyzing these relationships, we deduce the alignment between the author-selected topic and the objective content, offering insights into the research landscape in this domain.

Interrelationship between topics and keywords.

For instance, the term “information technology” is linked with “sustainable development”, “sustainable development strategy”, “EE”, and “library” in the co-occurrence map. This suggests a bifurcated relationship. Firstly, a close affiliation exists between information technology and sustainable development education, highlighting the necessity for leveraging information technology to integrate high-quality education resources effectively. The adoption of digital tools and platforms is vital for disseminating sustainable practices and knowledge, thereby enhancing the reach and impact of ESD initiatives.

Secondly, a subset of literature posits that university libraries, as pivotal academic resources, necessitate the integration of modern information technology to achieve their SDGs. This perspective underscores the role of digital transformation in enhancing operational efficiency, resource accessibility, and educational impact, aligning library functions with broader sustainable development objectives.

Another illustrative example involves the term “college student”, which is connected with “ecological civilization”, “quality education”, “UNESCO”, “green education”, and “Scientific Outlook on Development”. This linkage indicates that when “college student” serves as a keyword, the literature predominantly addresses themes of environmental and quality education. This finding underscores the pivotal role of universities as critical fronts for both environmental and quality education, with college students being the primary recipients of these educational endeavors.

The intersection of “college student” with “ecological civilization” and “green education” suggests an educational focus on fostering environmentally conscious mindsets and sustainable behaviors among young adults. This aligns with global education initiatives advocated by organizations such as UNESCO, emphasizing the integration of sustainable principles within higher education curricula to cultivate responsible and informed future leaders.

It is also found that the interplay between technological advancements and educational strategies in promoting sustainable development remains as a potential area of exploration. The dual focus on integrating information technology within both educational frameworks and library systems reveals a cross-sectoral approach to enhancing sustainability education. This multifaceted strategy highlights the necessity of technological adeptness in fostering an informed and environmentally responsible citizenry.

Moreover, the prominent role of universities and college students in ESD signals an opportunity to expand interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities. Incorporating practical sustainability projects, collaborative research, and community engagement initiatives within university settings can strengthen the educational impact and foster a culture of sustainability. By leveraging the intellectual and innovative potential of students, higher education institutions can become incubators of sustainable solutions and practices, contributing significantly to broader societal goals.

Keyword emergent analysis

Emerging keywords are those whose frequency of use experiences a significant surge within a specific timeframe, highlighting them as focal points of research interest during that period. This phenomenon not only indicates emerging research trends but also unveils prospective research questions across related fields, aiding in the anticipation of future research areas and trends. Utilizing Itginsight, a map showcasing the top 13 emerging keywords (Fig. 6 ) was crafted, providing a clear depiction of the current discourse in ESD research and eloquently illustrating its evolution.

Outburst chart.

Figure 6 reveals two primary characteristics of emerging keywords within the ESD domain. Firstly, a red line denotes the initial appearance year of the keyword, with “Begin” and “End” years marking the onset and cessation of research hotspots. Early hotspots such as “sustainable development strategy,” “green education,” “quality education,” and “sustainable development” predate later emerging themes like “EE,” “ecological civilization,” “higher vocational education,” and “education informatization.” These trends reflect the evolving focus within ESD research. Secondly, the values within brackets indicate the breakthrough rate of these keywords, with “sustainable development strategy” leading at an index value of 0.3889. This is followed by significant terms such as “green education,” “quality education,” “higher education,” “EE,” and “ecological civilization,” highlighting them as robust hotspots within academic research. Notably, “ESD” and “Sustainable Development” have maintained their prominence over 25 years, indicating their enduring relevance and potential as future research frontiers.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint emerging from these findings is the dynamic and interrelated nature of ESD research themes. The transition from early to later hotspots illustrates how academic focus shifts in response to emerging global challenges and educational imperatives. This evolving landscape suggests that future research in ESD must be adaptive, interdisciplinary, and responsive to continual shifts in environmental, technological, and educational paradigms. Leveraging these insights can guide strategic prioritization and holistic approaches in advancing sustainable education.

A deeper analysis of these emerging keywords reveals shifts in academic focus and highlights the dynamic nature of sustainability studies. For example, keywords such as “Education Informatization” have seen a substantial increase in prevalence, emphasizing the growing recognition of technological integration as essential for advancing sustainable education. This aligns with the broader global trend of digital transformation, which redefines educational methodologies by promoting accessibility, interactive learning environments, and the effective dissemination of sustainability concepts.

Moreover, the rise in frequency of terms like “green education” and “sustainable development stategy” underscores the heightened awareness and urgency of addressing climate-related issues through educational initiatives. The shift indicates a collective academic effort to equip learners with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate and mitigate the impacts of climate change, thereby reinforcing sustainability practices on a systemic level.

Interestingly, “Higher Education” and “Higher Vocational education” also feature prominently among the emerging keywords, suggesting a scholarly interest in how policy and institutional support can facilitate the mainstreaming of sustainable education practices. This area of research explores the mechanisms through which educational institutions and policymakers can collaborate to create conducive environments for sustainability education, thereby enhancing its reach and impact.

The emergence of “UNESCO” and “Scientific Outlook on Development” as keywords highlight the alignment of ESD research with international agendas. The focus on SDGs reflects the global academic community’s commitment to contributing to these universally recognized goals, underscoring the interconnectedness of education, sustainability, and development. This keyword’s prominence indicates a growing trend in research that seeks to align educational practices with global sustainability targets, fostering a holistic approach to development.

Another potential viewpoint from these findings is the integration of interdisciplinary approaches in ESD. The convergence of terms like “green, technology, engineering, and mathematics education” with sustainability underscores the innovative potential of merging traditional disciplinary boundaries to address complex sustainability challenges. This interdisciplinary focus not only broadens the scope of ESD but also enriches the educational experience by exposing learners to diverse perspectives and methodologies.

Furthermore, the presence of “quality education” among the emerging keywords reveals a comprehensive and multifaceted focus. It underscores the necessity of an inclusive, high-standard educational framework that integrates sustainable development principles, adapts to evolving global challenges, and ensures the holistic development of learners. This trend embodies a forward-thinking approach, aiming to equip current and future generations with the requisite tools to foster a more sustainable and equitable world.

Topic trending analysis

Analyzing the evolution trajectory of a research field provides vital insights into its developmental direction, facilitating predictions about future research trends. Itginsight incorporates a topic evolution model that identifies emerging and evolving trends, allowing researchers to map these changes over time. Utilizing Itginsight, a topic evolution map highlighting the top 8 words yearly within the domain of ESD was generated (Fig. 7 ). This chronological map aligns topics and their intensity horizontally from left to right, elucidating how topics have gained or lost significance, as well as how they have converged or split throughout the study period. The distinct colors assigned to each topic and the thickness of the connections between them signify the inter-topic strength and relevance.

Macro evolution of ESD.

As depicted in Fig. 7 , “quality education” and “knowledge economy” emerged as the dominant keywords characterizing ESD’s primary research focus before the turn of the 21st century. These terms underscore an initial emphasis on enhancing education standards and leveraging economic principles within educational frameworks to promote sustainable development. The prominence of these concepts highlights the foundational role they played in shaping early discussions and research in the field.

Moving into the early 21st century, there has been sustained and extensive scholarly focus on the concept of “informatization”. This term has the highest item density, indicating its crucial status within ESD’s knowledge structures. The persistent attention to informatization reflects the ongoing integration of information technologies within educational paradigms, signifying a pivotal shift towards digital learning environments and the utilization of technological advancements to support sustainable education. The longevity and relevance of this focus suggest that informatization will continue to be a critical area of interest in future ESD research.

In recent years, emerging topics such as “artificial intelligence”, “experimental teaching”, “library”, and “lifelong education” have gained increased prominence. These trends indicate a growing interest in innovative pedagogical tools and methods that can enhance the efficacy and accessibility of sustainable education. The rise of artificial intelligence as a topic of interest points to its potential in personalizing learning experiences and optimizing educational outcomes through data-driven approaches. Experimental teaching methods, likewise, suggest an emphasis on hands-on, experiential learning that fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills among students.

The inclusion of “library” highlights the evolving role of academic libraries as central hubs for knowledge dissemination and resource accessibility, adapting to the digital age’s demands. “Lifelong education” reflects the recognition of the need for continuous learning opportunities beyond traditional schooling, supporting the notion that education for sustainability extends throughout an individual’s life.

Additionally, topics such as “college student”, “postgraduate”, “excellent teacher”, and “educationist” have consistently been areas of significant interest, identifying important subjects and objects within the educational landscape. The consistent focus on college students and postgraduates underscores the critical role that higher education institutions play in embedding sustainable practices and knowledge. These groups are seen as pivotal for fostering a culture of sustainability and driving future innovations in the field.

The emphasis on “excellent teacher” and “educationist” highlights the importance of high-quality educators and thought leaders in advancing ESD. The role of educators is fundamental in implementing effective sustainable education strategies and nurturing a new generation of environmentally conscious and responsible citizens.

A particularly creative potential viewpoint emerging from these findings is the synthesis of technological advancements with innovative pedagogical strategies to forge robust frameworks for ESD. The integration of artificial intelligence and information technologies into educational practices allows for personalized, adaptive learning environments that can cater to diverse student needs and promote inclusive education for sustainability. This digital-educational convergence has the potential to revolutionize traditional teaching methodologies, making them more interactive, engaging, and effective.

Furthermore, the emphasis on lifelong education and experimental teaching indicates a shift towards more dynamic and flexible educational models. By fostering continuous learning and practical engagement, these models can better equip individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to address complex sustainability challenges comprehensively.

To further investigate the evolution of topics across different stages, we selected the top 24 topics based on word frequency and constructed a matrix (Fig. 8 ). In this matrix, the rows represent high-frequency topics, while the columns denote different time periods. Nodes appear at the intersections of the high-frequency topic rows and the corresponding year columns, indicating the years in which these topics were frequently discussed. The numbers on these nodes represent the frequency with which the high-frequency topics appeared in the corresponding years.

Time-high frequency topic matrix.

Figure 8 reveals that “quality education” was a concentrated theme in ESD literature from 1999 to 2001. In contrast, topics such as “postgraduate education” and “basic education” saw heightened focus during the 2010s. Notably, topics directly related to the ecological environment, such as “green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization”, have consistently appeared from the onset of relevant studies to the present day. This matrix enables a clearer analysis of the temporal distribution and frequency of high-frequency topics, providing insights into their prominence over time.

The persistent presence of topics related to the ecological environment throughout the study period underscores a continuous and heightened academic interest in integrating environmental concerns within educational frameworks. “Green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization” reflect a powerful undercurrent of sustainability as a core objective of educational policies and practices. This consistent focus on environmental topics signals a longstanding commitment within the scholarly community to foster ecological awareness and stewardship through education.

The concentration of “quality education” in earlier years (1999–2001) suggests a foundational effort to establish high educational standards as a critical component of sustainable development. This early emphasis likely set the stage for subsequent research efforts that aim to refine and implement quality education practices that align with sustainability goals. The focus on “postgraduate education” and “basic education” in the 2010s indicates a broadening of the research scope to encompass both advanced and foundational levels of education, striving to embed sustainable principles across the educational spectrum.

When examining these trends, one notable observation is the dynamic interplay between foundational educational reforms and advanced pedagogical approaches. The early emphasis on “quality education” likely provided a critical backdrop for later innovations in both postgraduate and basic education. This evolution suggests that foundational improvements in educational quality create a fertile ground for advanced educational methods and comprehensive curriculum development centered on sustainability.

Moreover, the sustained attention to environmental topics hints at an evolving understanding of the role of education in addressing ecological challenges. By consistently prioritizing “green education”, “EE”, and “ecological civilization”, researchers and educators emphasize the importance of equipping learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate and mitigate ecological crises. This trend highlights the critical role of education in fostering a generation of environmentally responsible citizens who are equipped to tackle pressing sustainability issues.

The matrix also reveals potential future directions for ESD research. Given the ongoing prominence of informatization, including the integration of digital tools and technologies in education, it is plausible that future research will continue to explore innovative ways to enhance educational quality and accessibility through technology.

Meanwhile, combining the principles of “quality education” with modern technological advancements such as “artificial intelligence” and “experiment teaching” could catalyze novel educational methodologies that are both high in quality and adaptive to contemporary learning needs, which implies the intersection of traditional and emerging educational themes.

Analysis of highly cited literature

Normative citations among authors in a field form a citation space network, providing valuable insights into research themes that encapsulate academic concerns, especially when analyzing highly cited papers. To this end, we utilized a restricted citation frequency method to refine our study. Further screening enhanced the accuracy of the research literature, specifically selecting papers whose titles referenced the policy environment. For a precise hotspot analysis, we concentrated on the top 100 highly cited papers—each with a minimum citation frequency of 34. This selection was supplemented with additional high citation analyses to build upon the initial selection process, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of predominant research themes.

Research topic of highly cited literature analysis

This research employs the LDA modeling technique to undertake comprehensive topic identification. LDA is an unsupervised machine learning text mining methodology predicated on the bag-of-words model. This technique facilitates the uncovering of latent topics within documents and organizes textual associations through these topics. By leveraging the LDA topic model, we establish robust topic classification and perform detailed topic analysis of the top 100 highly cited papers. This methodological approach enables the detection of underlying research themes and the systematic organization of academic discourse, thereby providing a nuanced understanding of scholarly trends and focal points within the literature.

Preprocessing of the data

Firstly, text pre-processing was conducted, which involved converting unstructured Chinese text into structured text through a multi-step procedure. Initially, a custom dictionary and stop word library were created to aid in text segmentation and eliminate irrelevant components. The abstracts served as the model corpus, processed within the Spyder Python environment utilizing the Python programming language. Given the corpus’s Chinese language nature, the jieba segmentation tool and a dynamically evolving custom proper noun dictionary were employed to enhance segmentation accuracy. This iterative dictionary optimization was based on segmentation outcomes.

The segmentation process incorporated a Chinese stop word table to filter out extraneous particles, punctuation marks, and other non-essential elements. Additionally, words were filtered by their frequency, excluding those with max_df >0.5 or min_df <10, to focus on the most relevant terms. The processed text was then subjected to topic analysis using the LDA model, facilitating the extraction and organization of latent topics within the dataset.

Secondly, the minimum perplexity approach was used to determine the optimal number of topics for the LDA topic model. Perplexity, which is derived from the concept of entropy in information theory, measures the distributional mapping of topics to vocabularies within a given article. It serves as an indicator of how well a topic can be mapped to various terms, with lower perplexity signifying clearer and more distinct topics.

To identify the optimal number of topics, the LDA model was trained with topic numbers ranging from 5 to 20. For each configuration, perplexity was calculated, thereby enabling the identification of the most coherent topic structure. Figure 9 illustrates the determination of this optimal number, showcasing the perplexity calculations across different topic settings. This rigorous approach ensured that the selected number of topics provided the clearest and most accurate representation of the underlying thematic structures within the dataset.

The trend of perplexity with the number of topics.

Based on Fig. 9 , it was determined that the minimum perplexity occurs when the number of topics is set to 8. Consequently, for the purposes of optimizing the current study, the K value was accordingly established at 8. To facilitate an in-depth analysis of the “text-topic” probability distribution, a comprehensive dataset was compiled into an Excel file titled “data_topic.xlsx.” This dataset systematically captures the probability distribution of each text across the selected 8 topics, alongside the maximum probability distribution pertinent to each text.

Topic and keyword analysis

(1) LDA topic analysis

Table 2 and Fig. 10 exhibit 8 topics and their corresponding refined classification of 25 keywords. The classification of each topic is discerned by means of a critical appraisal process. It is worth noting that the table outlines topics in a descending order from top to bottom, while keywords are presented from left to right and from top to bottom. Notably, the table offers both an illustrative and analytical framework that serves to deepen comprehension and elucidate the interplay between topics and keywords.

Intertopic Distance Map (via multidimensional scaling).

The “School Education” topic constitutes 23.9% of the highly cited literature, while “Ecological Education” and “Educational Reform” account for 14.4% and 13.8%, respectively. Together, these top three topics represent over half of the highly cited articles. Consequently, these predominant themes were selected for an in-depth topic keyword analysis, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of their significance and the intricate interplay of concepts within these focal research areas. This targeted exploration reveals critical insights into the dominant scholarly concerns and foundational principles driving contemporary educational discourse.

Moreover, by analyzing the featured words presented in the “School Education” topic, such as “school”, “activity”, “science”, “connotation”, and “comprehensive”, and further combining with the abstract information, it has been demonstrated that the keyword “activity” is indicative of an array of ESD practices—including campus football activities and museum activities. These practices are considered integral learning components of school education activities in which students and teachers participate within the school’s premises. Notably, implementing ESD practices today seems to have far-reaching and comprehensive ramifications. This kind of education impacts students to become “sustainable people”, influencing and driving positive changes around them, and even their entire society —thus promoting sustainable development across diverse economic, social, and ecological aspects. However, it is apparent that the development of ESD practices presently faces several difficulties. Therefore, clarifying the theory of sustainable development can aid in overcoming these difficulties. Notably, highly cited articles within the “School Education” topic offer discussions on the definition and connotation of ESD. Specifically, ESD has a narrow scope, referring to school sustainable development education, which disseminates theories and knowledge about sustainable development. This, in turn, promotes sustainable development ethics and values among students, leading to improved abilities to plan, organize educational activities, and develop practical capabilities in sustainable development knowledge and skills. School education plays a predominant role in ESD and serves as a notable research hotspot in this field.

Drawing from the keywords within the “Ecological Education” topic, such as “ecology”, “human”, “strategy”, “foundation”, and “environment”, and further engaging the specific content of the abstract material, it is discovered that ecological education encompasses ecological civilization education, ecological moral education, and eco-art education. Specifically, Eco-art education prioritizes tackling eco-imbalance and enhancing students’ humanistic qualities and artistic abilities across divergent knowledge domains. Ecological education is a relatively new concept originating in the 1960s as issues related to the environment appeared in society. Subsequently, over time, the definition of the term has been transformed along with the development of EE. Recently, the heightened focus on environmental and ecological challenges has presented challenges in education that cut across both productive and ecological domains. Nevertheless, the emerging need to reflect on the relationship between humans and nature has raised interest in ecological education, which has consequently become a research hotspot in ESD. In this regard, ecological education is not only perceived as a reflection of ecological awareness in education but also as a means for cultivating well-rounded graduates.

Similarly, based on the keywords within the “Education Reform” topic, such as “teaching”, “model”, “reform”, “science”, “process”, among others, and integrating the content of the abstract, it is apparent that the subject of reform encompasses a range of specific areas. For instance, there’s the reform of AI-enabled education, which accentuates standardizing the development of AI+ education. Additionally, there’s the reform of vocational education, which underscores cooperation between schools and enterprises, integrating production and education. Moreover, the reform of geography ESD is an evident facet, emphasizing the cultivation of geography talents in line with current market trends, standardizing geography terminology, and enhancing geography instruction. Other reforms encompass the integration of information technology in primary and secondary education, overhauling the present “heavy hard, light soft” teaching and structural operational constraint deficiencies, while the reform of laboratory instruction and research focuses on creating new teaching models, such as reflective teaching models that enhance inquiry-based teaching methods. Significantly, the highly cited articles within the topic of “education reform” concentrate on multiple specific areas while maintaining the core focus on reform. The reform measures proposed prioritize sustainable development, responding to educational hotspots of social concern.

(2) Social Network Analysis on Keywords

To undertake a more detailed analysis of the research hotspots in the top 100 highly cited articles on ESD, this paper extensively employs SNA, which is a commonly used approach in content analyses. Specifically, using Ucinet tool, we constructed a co-occurrence network of the article abstracts related to ESD (depicted in Fig. 11 ). The analysis focused on investigating the interactions between different topics and the frequency of co-occurrence of keywords within each topic. The links between nodes graphically represented the relationship between different topics, with nodes with a higher number of links elucidating a more prominent role in the network. Through SNA and content analysis, this paper derives several key insights, including:

Social network visualization.

Upon further investigation of the top 100 highly cited articles on ESD, we observed that there is tacit convergence on eight topics, and the difference in the link width between topics is not significant. Notably, the differences in link width between these topics are not pronounced, indicating a relatively balanced research interest among the academic community across the eight themes, without any evident thematic preference.

The thickness of the links between topics denotes the degree of co-occurrence, with denser lines signifying stronger thematic connections. In particular, the links between “EE” and “higher education”, as well as between “school education” and “education reform”, are the thickest. This highlights these thematic pairs as integral focal points within the academic community, showcasing their tight interconnectivity.

These findings suggest that scholars frequently link “EE” with “higher education” when conducting research on the former, and similarly, associate “school education” with “education reform”. This interdisciplinary linkage underscores the intertwined nature of educational paradigms aimed at advancing sustainable development.

Upon examining the relationships between the keywords under each topic, it was found that the diagram of the keywords’ co-occurrence forms a multi-central structure, with the most prominent number of lines clustering under the “school education” topic, implying the closest associations among keywords in this domain. Core aspects of research on this topic include keywords such as “school,” “construction,” “methods,” and “teaching staff.” This pattern signifies that the academic community places significant emphasis on promoting the development of teaching methodologies and educational infrastructure within the school environment. Such concentration on these keywords underscores an ongoing commitment to enhancing the quality and effectiveness of school education, reflecting broader aspirations for sustainable educational practices.

Within the “education reform” topic, there is a notable emergence of both teaching-related and reform-related keywords, indicating that the academic community is intensely focused on the transformation of educational and pedagogical practices. This theme underscores a concerted effort to rethink and innovate existing educational paradigms to enhance efficacy and relevance.

The “ecological education” topic delves deeply into evaluating the impact of integrating ecological education on humanity. This topic critically examines how fostering ecological consciousness can influence human behavior and societal progress, underscoring the need to embed sustainability principles within educational frameworks.

In the realm of “EE”, the discussion extends to the holistic advancement of EE from a global perspective. This theme captures the international efforts and policies aimed at fostering environmental stewardship through education, reflecting a commitment to addressing global environmental challenges.

For the “higher education” topic, keywords such as “issue”, “science”, and “country” reveal a scholarly pursuit to identify suitable methodologies for achieving scientific and sustainable development within higher education systems. This focus highlights the importance of nurturing higher education growth across different national contexts, addressing diverse needs, and fostering international collaboration.

The “education quality” topic draws attention to the quality of rural education amidst rapid urbanization and the evolution of vocational education. This theme emphasizes the necessity of maintaining high educational standards in rural areas and adapting vocational training to meet the demands of a rapidly advancing education sector.

Finally, the “education research” topic encapsulates the dynamic progression and transformation of educational theories. The academic community’s focus on this area reflects an ongoing effort to refine and revolutionize theoretical frameworks to better inform practice and policy.

Emotional state analysis of research literature

After conducting a comprehensive review of the top 100 highly cited literature on ESD, we have meticulously gathered and analyzed the abstract keywords for each theme. Subsequently, the Emotion Calculator was used to conduct sentiment analysis and compile statistical outcomes for the emotional distribution associated with each topic, as illustrated in Table 3 . The data showcased in Table 3 demonstrates that the emotional attitudes evaluated are predominantly positive, with no neutral attitudes and a small proportion reflecting negative feelings. One of the reasons for the largely positive sentiments elicited in the academic community towards ESD is that it is a hot topic of this century. The erudite scholars and researchers possess a strong opinion on this subject and deem it to be of paramount importance in the current socio-economic and ecological scenarios. They believe that ESD holds the potential to cultivate sustainable people and play a constructive role in society’s sustainable development. Additionally, the wider public has become significantly influenced by the concept of sustainable development and value education, amplifying the prevailing positive perception in the academic community towards ESD.

Upon analyzing the emotional distribution of the eight themes, it was evident that the “education reform” topic garnered the highest proportion of positive attitudes, accounting for 96.43% of the total sentiments. This overwhelming positive sentiment underscores the academic community’s strong interest in contemporary education reforms and their conviction in the effectiveness of targeted reform measures. These measures include advocating for norms in AI education development, providing strategic guidance for AI educational growth, and promoting lifelong learning as a countermeasure to the constraints of exam-oriented education systems.

Interestingly, out of the eight topics examined, only “education reform” and “school education” garnered negative sentiments. These negative attitudes suggest that some scholars harbor concerns about the current state of education reform and school education. Such concerns might stem from the inherent challenges and practical difficulties encountered in the implementation of ESD activities within the school education framework.

Despite these challenges, the academic community is actively engaged in seeking viable solutions for education reforms. The presence of negative sentiments among some scholars should not be interpreted as a lack of support for reform but rather as a reflection of their deep-seated zeal for transformative changes within the education sector. These scholars’ critical stance points toward a heightened sense of urgency and commitment to addressing the shortcomings of current educational practices, which they believe can be remedied through comprehensive reform initiatives.

The creative potential of these findings lies in understanding the complex emotions surrounding educational reforms and leveraging these insights to foster a more inclusive and adaptive reform process. By recognizing the concerns and positive attitudes of scholars, policymakers and educational leaders can better tailor their strategies to accommodate both the optimism and the critical perspectives prevalent in the academic community. This dual approach ensures that reforms are not only ambitious and forward-thinking but also grounded in practical realities and potential challenges.

Furthermore, acknowledging the critical voices within the realm of “school education” can lead to more targeted interventions aimed at alleviating the practical difficulties faced in the implementation of ESD. This could involve more robust support mechanisms for teachers, the integration of innovative pedagogical methods, and a stronger emphasis on the development of sustainable educational practices.

Generally, the outcomes indicate an overriding sense of positivity and optimism concerning the inherent potential of ESD to drive transformative societal change, a thematic emphasis that has emerged as a key area of research in contemporary academia. Despite the intricacies and complexities of various research themes, the scholarly consensus is that ESD represents a vital and indispensable means of addressing the pressing environmental and social challenges of our epoch. Notably, the “Educational Reform” category emerges as the primary focus of scholarly discourse, with scholars predominantly espousing positive sentiment towards the need for critical systemic modifications in contemporary educational practices. Nevertheless, a minority of scholars expresses negative sentiment, attesting to significant challenges encountered in the implementation of sustainable education within school contexts. Collectively, these findings supply valuable insights illuminating the positive potentials of sustainable education in tackling contemporary societal problems and extend beyond the realm of educational scholarship to broader social, economic, and environmental domains.

The concept of sustainable development has undergone dynamic development since its proposal. The Chinese government has made a concerted effort to prioritize sustainable development by issuing a series of related policy documents across a range of sectors, including education. ESD is a crucial element of sustainable development, as defined by the international community. However, there is a relative lack of academic literature on the empirical development and theoretical considerations of ESD in the unique contextual settings of China.

The findings from our comprehensive examination of ESD within the Chinese academic milieu unequivocally indicate a significant escalation in scholarly engagement and discourse in this domain. This expansion is evidenced by the substantial increase in publications over recent years, corroborating our initial hypothesis concerning the growing recognition of sustainable educational practices. The utilization of bibliometric techniques, specifically keyword co-occurrence and clustering maps, has underscored dynamic trends and emergent themes such as interdisciplinary methodologies, policy integration, and innovative pedagogical strategies, all of which are pivotal to the evolving landscape of ESD research.

In applying theoretical constructs such as the LDA model and SNA, our study has unveiled the intricate dimensions of ESD. The LDA model effectively identified underlying topics within the corpus, while SNA elucidated the complex web of scholarly interactions, highlighting significant nodes and thematic clusters. Notably, sentiment analysis via Rostcm6 software revealed a predominantly positive sentiment among Chinese scholars towards ESD, demonstrating an optimistic and proactive stance towards sustainability issues. This observation is particularly intriguing as it contrasts with some aspects of the global discourse, which often emphasizes the challenges and obstacles encountered in the implementation of sustainable practices.

The implications of these findings are far-reaching. They reflect a robust and growing commitment within the Chinese academic context to embedding principles of sustainable development into educational frameworks. This trend not only aligns with global sustainability imperatives but also underscores a unique, culturally and policy-driven momentum towards sustainable development in China. By providing a detailed bibliometric and content analysis of ESD literature, our research contributes significantly to the existing body of knowledge, highlighting novel research trajectories and thematic areas for further exploration.

Looking ahead, our study suggests several promising avenues for future research. There is a pressing need to investigate the impact of specific ESD policies and interventions across varied educational contexts to assess their effectiveness and scalability. Furthermore, exploring interdisciplinary linkages between ESD and other academic fields such as environmental science, economics, and sociology could enrich the discourse and application of sustainable practices. Future research questions may include examining the influence of ESD on student outcomes, community engagement, and the role of technological advancements in promoting sustainable education.

A critical socio-political evaluation of our findings underscores the significance of ESD as a strategic tool in addressing broader societal challenges. The proactive engagement of Chinese scholars and policymakers in ESD reflects a concerted effort to align educational practices with both national and global sustainability objectives. This evaluation highlights the potential of ESD to cultivate an informed and engaged citizenry capable of driving societal transformation. Moreover, it raises vital questions about the scalability and adaptability of these initiatives across diverse socio-political landscapes, thereby broadening our understanding and posing new questions for future inquiry.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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WT and JG designed the study and wrote the paper and supervised the paper writing; XZ, YZ, TD, and HY undertook data collection. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Tian, W., Ge, J., Zheng, X. et al. Understanding the landscape of education for sustainable development in China: a bibliometric review and trend analysis of multicluster topics(1998–2023). Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 1213 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03713-y

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A Medical Education Research Library: key research topics and associated experts

Kaylee eady.

Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Katherine A. Moreau

When clinician-educators and medical education researchers use and discuss medical education research, they can advance innovation in medical education as well as improve its quality. To facilitate the use and discussions of medical education research, we created a prefatory visual representation of key medical education research topics and associated experts. We conducted one-on-one virtual interviews with medical education journal editorial board members to identify what they perceived as key medical education research topics as well as who they associated, as experts, with each of the identified topics. We used content analysis to create categories representing key topics and noted occurrences of named experts. Twenty-one editorial board members, representing nine of the top medical education journals, participated. From the data we created a figure entitled, Medical Education Research Library. The library includes 13 research topics, with assessment as the most prevalent. It also notes recognized experts, including van der Vleuten, ten Cate, and Norman. The key medical education research topics identified and included in the library align with what others have identified as trends in the literature. Selected topics, including workplace-based learning, equity, diversity, and inclusion, physician wellbeing and burnout, and social accountability, are emerging. Once transformed into an open educational resource, clinician-educators and medical education researchers can use and contribute to the functional library. Such continuous expansion will generate better awareness and recognition of diverse perspectives. The functional library will help to innovate and improve the quality of medical education through evidence-informed practices and scholarship.

Introduction

Medical education research (MER) advances innovation in medical education and improves its quality. However, for novice clinician-educators, generating medical education scholarship can be daunting [ 1 ]. The ‘alien culture’ of MER, with its own concepts and processes [ 2 ], and time-constraints [ 3 ], may hinder clinician-educators from appropriately implementing evidence into their educational practices and scholarship [ 3 , 4 ].

To increase MER use, some have shed light on research areas of foci [ 5 , 6 ], demonstrated top citations [ 7 , 8 ], and spotlighted journal trends [ 9 , 10 ]. Such bibliometric studies provide glimmers into who is publishing MER and individual pieces of scholarship. However, they do not concisely present key MER topics and associated experts. They present findings in long word-based formats, which are unideal for clinician-educators’ needs [ 11 ]. Thus, we initiated the creation of a prefatory visual representation of current key MER topics and associated experts.

Medical education journal editors have unique insights into MER and are responsible for determining the value and significance of works submitted [ 12 ]. We contacted all editorial board members of the top 10 medical education journals, based on 2022 impact factors, via their public email addresses, provided an information letter, and invited them to participate in a one-on-one virtual interview. We asked them what they perceived as key MER topics and who they associated, as experts, with each. Interviewees provided prior informed verbal consent. Our University’s Office of Research Ethics and Integrity approved the study (#S-11-21-7569).

We conducted content analysis [ 13 ] to determine key MER topics and associated experts. We created initial categories based on the above-mentioned bibliometric studies. We individually read the transcripts and highlighted text representing topics, coded highlighted text using the predetermined categories, then created new categories for topics beyond the initial scheme. We resolved disagreements through discussion. We then reread the transcripts and searched for occurrences of named experts for each topic. We determined key topics to be those identified by at least two interviewees and included all experts identified.

Of the 81 members invited, 21 participated, representing nine of the top medical education journals: Academic Medicine, Advances in Health Sciences Education, BMC Medical Education, Canadian Medical Education Journal, Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, Medical Teacher, Perspectives on Medical Education, Teaching and Learning in Medicine, and The Clinical Teacher. From the data we created Figure 1 , Medical Education Research Library .

Medical Education Research Library.

The library illustrates key MER topics and associated experts. The shelves represent the identified topics; the right bracketed number represents the number of interviewees that identified the topic. The topics are placed most to least identified, from top to bottom and left to right. The labeled paper organisers represent the identified experts within each topic; the number below represents the number of interviewees that identified that individual as an expert.

This Medical Education Research Library provides a prefatory visual representation of current key MER topics and associated experts. The topics align with trends identified in the literature, including topics of longstanding focus in MER. For example, previous research revealed the prevalence of topics related to learner characteristics, medical school selection, and assessment [ 6 , 7 , 14 ]. Authors identified topics related to physician competencies (skills, knowledge, attributes), curricula, and teaching as key [ 5–7 ]. Topics related to research methodology, program evaluation, and technology are gaining prominence [ 5 ]. This study highlights a growing interest in research related to workplace-based learning and an emerging interest in equity, diversity, and inclusion, physician wellbeing and burnout, and social accountability.

The library allows clinician-educators to see key MER topics and perceived experts when searching for evidence to support, improve, and innovate their practices and scholarship. Such knowledge and efficiency benefits manuscript publication and academic promotion [ 15 ]. The library encourages medical education researchers to reflect on where they might fit within the library and who they might engage as future collaborators, mentors, or reviewers. More so, it urges them to think about how they can grow the library and diversify the topics included [ 5 , 10 , 16–18 ]. It illustrates a limited number of experts, highlighting the need for collaborative efforts to bring recognition to others’ work. Concerningly, the identified experts are mostly males, from Western countries and high-ranking institutions. As such, the library presses that the community needs to address issues around who is considered legitimate in MER and better recognize and support diverse perspectives [ 10 ].

With this, we recognize that the library provides the perspective of one stakeholder group, that of journal editors; specifically, the perspectives of those who participated in this study. Our intention is to provide a prefatory visual representation for the medical education community to grow and diversify through research. We intend to spark conversations around what and who is perceived as key in MER as well as comments such as ‘Why isn’t topic X included?’ and ‘I am missing from topic X!’. With this, we will transform the Medical Education Research Library into a functional, open educational resource that serves to innovate and improve the quality of medical education through evidence-informed practices and scholarship.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dennis Newhook and Mary-Ann Harrison of the Clinical Research Unit, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, for their support and artistic creativity in helping us create the Medical Education Research Library .

Funding Statement

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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5 facts about student loans

Americans owe about $1.6 trillion in student loans as of June 2024 – 42% more than what they owed a decade earlier. The increase has come as greater shares of young U.S. adults  go to college and as the cost of higher education increases.

Here are five facts about student loans in America based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from several sources, including the Federal Reserve Board’s 2023 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand how many Americans have outstanding student loan debt and how this debt is associated with their economic well-being.

In this analysis, adults with student loan debt include those whose student loans are temporarily on hold or in forbearance. The analysis does not include debt incurred through credit cards or other types of loans used for education.

The analysis is mostly based on the Federal Reserve’s 2023 Survey of Household and Economic Decisionmaking (SHED). Conducted annually since 2013, the SHED measures U.S. adults overall financial well-being and difficulties meeting expenses. It also regularly includes a battery of questions on debts incurred for education, education decisions, and an assessment of the value of higher education. The 2023 SHED had 11,400 respondents, weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult civilian noninstitutionalized population.

One-in-four U.S. adults under 40 have student loan debt. This share drops to 14% among those ages 40 to 49 and to just 4% among those 50 and older.

Of course, not all Americans attend or graduate from college, so student loan debt is more common among the subset of people who have done so. Among adults under 40 who have at least a four-year college degree, for example, 36% have outstanding student loan debt.

Age differences reflect, in part, the fact that older adults have had more time to repay their loans. Still, other research has found that young adults are also more likely now than in the past to take out loans to pay for their education. In the 2018-2019 academic year, 28% of undergraduate students took out federal student loans. That’s up from 23% in 2001-2002, according to data from College Board – a nonprofit organization perhaps best known for its standardized admissions tests (like the SAT) that also documents trends in higher education.

The amount of student loan debt that Americans owe varies widely by their education level. Overall, the median borrower with outstanding student debt owed between $20,000 and $24,999 in 2023.

• Among borrowers who attended some college but don’t have a bachelor’s degree, the median owed was between $10,000 and $14,999 in 2023.
• The typical bachelor’s degree holder who borrowed owed between $20,000 and $24,999.
• Among borrowers with a postgraduate degree the median owed was between $40,000 and $49,999.

Looking at the same data another way, a quarter of borrowers without a bachelor’s degree owed at least $25,000 in 2023. About half of borrowers with a bachelor’s degree (49%) and an even higher share of those with a postgraduate education (71%) owed at least that much.

Adults with a postgraduate degree are especially likely to have a large amount of student loan debt. About a quarter of these advanced degree holders who borrowed (26%) owed $100,000 or more in 2023, compared with 9% of all borrowers. Overall, only 1% of all U.S. adults owed at least $100,000.

Young college graduates with student loans are more likely than those without this kind of debt to say they struggle financially. A quarter of college graduates ages 25 to 39 with loans say they are either finding it difficult to get by financially or are just getting by , compared with 9% of those without loans. And while only 29% of young college graduates with outstanding student loans say they are living comfortably, 53% of those without loans say the same.

Young college graduates with student loans still tend to have higher household incomes than their counterparts who haven’t completed college. For many young adults, student loans are a way to make an otherwise unattainable education a reality. Although these students have to borrow money to attend college, the investment might make sense if it leads to higher earnings later in life.

College graduates ages 25 to 39 who have student loan debt have higher household incomes than non-college graduates in the same age group (regardless of student loan status). But their household incomes are lower than those of young college graduates who don’t have student loan debt.

Around half of young college graduates with student loans (48%) have household incomes of at least $100,000. That compares with just 14% of non-college graduates. But among college graduates without student loan debt, 64% have household incomes of $100,000 or more.

Household income includes an individual’s income and the income of any spouse or partner living with them. So these differences may at least partly reflect the fact that college graduates are more likely to be married.

Young college graduates with student loan debt are more likely than those without debt to say their education wasn’t worth the cost . About a third (35%) of those ages 25 to 39 who have at least a bachelor’s degree and outstanding student loan debt say the benefits of their degree weren’t worth the lifetime financial costs. By comparison, 16% of young college graduates without outstanding student loans say the same.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published Aug. 13, 2019.

• Age & Generations
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Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Research Center .

Anthony Cilluffo is a former research analyst who focused on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center .

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