We are happy to announce that Josef-Peter Schöggl, Lukas Stumpf and Rupert J. Baumgartner have been awarded both the Most Cited Paper and the Most Downloaded Paper Award 2022 for review papers from Resources, Conservation & Recycling for their study, "The Narrative of Sustainability and Circular Economy - A Longitudinal Review of Two Decades of Research". The award is given to the top 10 papers in each category, and we are honored that our researchers are recognized for their achievement. In the study, they analyzed all #circulareconomy (CE) related papers (i.e. 3822) published between 2000 and 2019 with a specific focus on their #sustainability connotation.
Some of the results are:
- CE research is growing exponentially, but its thematic diversity is increasing only slowly.
- Waste and recycling are the primary research areas, and only a few environmental aspects (such as waste, resource use, and CO2 emissions) are closely examined.
- Other environmental topics remain on the periphery, and social issues are largely neglected or underrepresented.
- The mainstream of CE research has primarily focused on the corporate perspective, while the consumer's perspective is rarely considered.
- However, in recent years, a new stream of research has emerged that focuses on product design aspects and adequate embeddedness in a business model.
- The study confirms that CE is not a standalone solution but rather one of several complementary strategies when it comes to achieving sustainable development.
The paper is available with open access here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105073