Contribution of female researchers in the water sector: A scientometric review

Abstract

Tremendous progress has happened in the development and efficient management of water resources in the country. Several researchers nationally and internationally contributed to developing the technical solutions, designing the national/sub-national policies and guidance for efficient management. Many of these researchers include female researchers who are working on water research aspects across regions. The database review of the lead female researchers gives an opportunity for insights into the trending research in the water sector. In this paper, an attempt has been made to do a bibliometric analysis of the Scopus database (2001–2021) for analyzing the research related to water quality, water management, hydrology, and water research. The 21 years Scopus database was downloaded including research papers, books, and conference proceedings, which were then examined for the gender of the first author. The gender analysis of the first author was done by searching them on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, and other social networks. Further, the bibliometric analysis of female first-authored papers was done in the R-Biblioshiny for results like research trends, most relevant authors, most relevant sources, and most global cited documents. There were about 2975 documents including research papers, books, and conference proceedings in water management and water research. The bibliometric analysis visualizes various ways of literature review in the water sector. The gender involvement analysis will help to formulate the research agenda and topics by considering women’s vital role in water management in every sector.