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Analysis of institutional authors

Cebrián GAuthor

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August 10, 2020
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Key competencies in sustainability in higher education—toward an agreed-upon reference framework

Publicated to:Sustainability Science. 16 (1): 13-29 - 2021-01-01 16(1), DOI: 10.1007/s11625-020-00838-2

Authors: Brundiers, Katja; Barth, Matthias; Cebrian, Gisela; Cohen, Matthew; Diaz, Liliana; Doucette-Remington, Sonya; Dripps, Weston; Habron, Geoffrey; Harre, Niki; Jarchow, Meghann; Losch, Kealalokahi; Michel, Jessica; Mochizuki, Yoko; Rieckmann, Marco; Parnell, Roderic; Walker, Peter; Zint, Michaela

Affiliations

Arizona State Univ, Sch Sustainabil, Tempe, AZ 85281 USA - Author
Arizona State University - Author
Bellevue Coll, Dept Environm Sci, Bellevue, WA USA - Author
Bellevue College - Author
Chatham Univ, Falk Sch Sustainabil, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA - Author
Chatham University - Author
Furman Univ, Dept Earth & Environm Sci, Greenville, SC 29613 USA - Author
Furman University - Author
Hochschule Vechta - Author
Kapiolani Community College - Author
Laval Univ, Inst Hydroquebec Environm Dev & Soc, Quebec City, PQ, Canada - Author
Leuphana Univ, Inst Sustainable Dev & Learning, Luneburg, Germany - Author
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg - Author
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development - Author
No Arizona Univ, Sch Earth & Sustainabil, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 USA - Author
Northern Arizona University - Author
UNESCO, Mahatma Gandhi Inst Educ Peace & Sustainable Dev, New Delhi, India - Author
Univ Auckland, Sch Psychol, Auckland, New Zealand - Author
Univ Hawaii Manoa, Univ Hawaii Syst, Kapi Olani Community Coll, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA - Author
Univ Michigan, Sch Environm & Sustainabil, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA - Author
Univ Rovira & Virgili, Dept Pedag, Tarragona, Spain - Author
Univ South Dakota, Dept Sustainabil & Environm, Vermillion, SD USA - Author
Univ Vechta, Fac Educ & Social Sci, Dept Educ, Vechta, Germany - Author
Universitat Rovira i Virgili - Author
Universite Laval - Author
University of Auckland - Author
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Author
University of South Dakota - Author
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Abstract

© 2020, Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature. Hundreds of sustainability programs have emerged at universities and colleges around the world over the past 2 decades. A prime question for employers, students, educators, and program administrators is what competencies these programs develop in students. This study explores convergence on competencies for sustainability programs. We conducted a Delphi study with 14 international experts in sustainability education on the framework of key competencies in sustainability by Wiek et al. (Sustain Sci 6: 203–218, 2011), the most frequently cited framework to date. While experts generally agreed with the framework, they propose two additional competencies, suggest a hierarchy of competencies, and specify learning objectives for students interested in a career as sustainability researcher. The refined framework can inform program development, implementation, and evaluation to enhance employability of graduates and facilitate comparison of sustainability programs worldwide.

Keywords

Curriculum developmentEducation for sustainable developmentFutureInterventionsKey competenciesLearning objectivesMindfulnessScienceSustainability problem solving

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Sustainability Science due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 51/279, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 14.36. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 32.56 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 256.65 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-06, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 292
  • Scopus: 420

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-06:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 760.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 841 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 22.4.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Canada; Germany; India; New Zealand; United States of America.