Bibliometric mapping of the trends and contributions of scientific publications to risk and crisis communication regarding South America

Abstract

Risk and crisis communication (R&CC) are crucial elements of managing vulnerability to big threats. This paper aims to explore the trends and contributions of scientific publications to R&CC about South America. Through the examination of 330 papers listed in the Web of Science database, the current study conducted a thorough overview between 1998 (oldest study) and 2021 (cut-off date) of bibliometric networks (keyword co-occurrence map, co-authorship maps, and author co-citation map) and multivariate statistical models (principal component analysis, compositional linear model). We address main communication factors, links between communication factors and countries, main academic cooperation networks, determinants of publication trends, and most cited authors. 28 R&CC factors were mapped and their relative importance to various hazards was examined. Most of these factors were intended to strengthen the communication system and increase risk knowledge of vulnerable people. Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador were mostly focused on strengthening R&CC. Brazil and Argentina were best represented with health and exposure to pollutants communication. Publications on R&CC are determined by the level of wealth, tourist arrivals, and the number of people affected by disasters. The compositional analysis revealed that the behavior of publications determinants could have opposite tendencies depending on the threats’ multidimensionality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first R&CC study on South America to use CoDA in a bibliometric analysis.