Investigating patterns of knowledge production in research on three UN sustainable development goals

Purpose In today’s knowledge societies, scientific research is tasked to contribute to solving crucial problems, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Epistemic inequality, both in terms of who is able to contribute, and whose voices are being heard, could hamper our ability to develop solutions that meet the needs of all. Design/methodology/approach We assembled a set of publications published from 2006 to 2019 related to three SDGs (Health/Well-Being, Climate Action, Zero Hunger) by mapping Fields of Study from Microsoft Academic Graph to SDGs. Across this set, we investigate patterns of knowledge production, investigating gender, levels of institutional resourcing and contributions by world region, as well as Open Access availability of research. Findings Research related to the three SDGs is primarily published by researchers from institutions situated in the global North. Well-resourced institutions contribute disproportionately to the study of the three SDGs. The share of authorships by women is rising, but still far away from equity. We find higher ranked institutions to produce more OA articles, with a declining relationship between institutional ranking and the share of OA. Finally, we find overall higher shares of OA publishing across low- and high-income countries, compared to lower and upper medium income countries. Originality/value Mapping research contributions to SDGs by leveraging the comprehensive data available from Microsoft Academic Graph adds an important perspective to the study of SDG-related research.