Research Trends on Affordable and Clean Energy Across the Arab Region: Bibliometric and Altmetric Insights into SDG 7

Affordable and clean energy is a key part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, progress toward SDG 7 varies by region. Although global SDG 7 research has grown rapidly, systematic evidence on the structure and impact of such scholarship in the Arab region remains limited, even though the region is both a major energy supplier and a site of energy transition. This study combined bibliometric and altmetric analyses to examine Scopus-indexed publications classified under SDG 7 and affiliated with all 22 Arab countries between 2015 and 2024. Scopus and SciVal data were used to assess publication growth, journal quartile positioning, citation performance, and international, academic–corporate, and academic–government collaboration. Within the same Scopus/SciVal framework, the Arab region was benchmarked against East Asia, the EU-27, and North America. Altmetric Explorer was used to examine recorded attention across social media, news, and policy sources. Results show a marked increase in SDG 7-related publications in the Arab region, rising from 3737 in 2015 to 19,165 in 2024, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt driving most of the growth. Overall, 79.1% of outputs appeared in Q1 or Q2 journals, and the regional field-weighted citation impact was 1.57, exceeding the global benchmark. International collaboration accounted for 60.4% of publications, surpassing the comparison regions. However, its associated citation performance remained below that of East Asia and North America. Academic–corporate collaboration accounted for only about 1.6% of output but was associated with comparatively high citation impact. Of 94,863 outputs examined through Altmetric, 14,318 received measurable online attention, predominantly through X. News and policy attention was concentrated largely in North America, Western Europe, and Australia, with comparatively limited attention originating within the Arab region. These findings demonstrate the Arab region’s growing contribution to SDG 7 scholarship and underline the need to strengthen local research capacity, collaborative leadership, and the translation of research into policy to support sustainable energy transitions.