Knowledge Transfer from Interdisciplinary Research on Circular Economy to Academic Disciplines - a bibliometrics study

This study investigates the knowledge transfer from interdisciplinary research on Circular Economy (CE) to classical academic disciplines (ADs) such as Engineering, Economics, Geography, and Management. Despite the prolific publication of CE research in interdisciplinary journals, there is a notable discrepancy in its integration into traditional AD journals. Utilizing a bibliometric analysis of 22,400 articles indexed in Web of Science, this paper explores the dissemination and evolution of CE publications across both disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals. The study employs Journal Citation Reports for journal categorization and utilizes tools like Excel and VantagePoint to map the flow of knowledge within the field. Our findings reveal that a significant majority of CE research is published in interdisciplinary platforms, particularly in Engineering, highlighting a robust intersection of knowledge from various disciplines. The study not only identifies the disciplines incorporating CE into their evolution but also offers insights into those that are lagging, proposing a methodological protocol for further academic inquiry.