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Analysis of institutional authors

Bernues, AAuthor

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April 12, 2021
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Article

Topics and trends in Mountain Livestock Farming research: a text mining approach

Publicated to:Animal. 15 (1): 100058- - 2021-01-01 15(1), DOI: 10.1016/j.animal.2020.100058

Authors: Zuliani, A; Contiero, B; Schneider, M K; Arsenos, G; Bernues, A; Dovc, P; Gauly, M; Holand, O; Martin, B; Morgan-Davies, C; Zollitsch, W; Cozzi, G

Affiliations

Agroscope, Forage Prod & Grassland Syst, Reckenholzstr 191, CH-8046 Zurich, Switzerland - Author
Aristotle Univ Thessaloniki, Sch Hlth Sci, Dept Vet Med, Lab Anim Husb, Thessaloniki 54124, Greece - Author
BOKU Univ Nat Resources & Life Sci, Dept Sustainable Agr Syst, Div Livestock Sci, Vienna, Austria - Author
Free Univ Bolzano, Fac Sci & Technol, Livestock Prod Syst, Univ Pl 5, I-39100 Bolzano, Italy - Author
Norwegian Univ Life Sci, Fac Biosci, N-1434 As, Norway - Author
Scotlands Rural Coll SRUC, South & West Fac, Hill & Mt Res Ctr, Kirkton Farm FK20 8RU, Crianlarich, England - Author
Univ Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, UMR Herbivores, F-63122 St Genes Champanelle, France - Author
Univ Ljubljana, Biotech Fac, Groblje 3, Domzale 1230, Slovenia - Author
Univ Padua, Dept Anim Med Prod & Hlth, Viale Univ 2, I-35020 Padua, Italy - Author
Univ Udine, Dept Food Agr Environm & Anim Sci, Via Sondrio 2-A, I-33100 Udine, Italy - Author
Univ Zaragoza, Unidad Prod & Sanidad Anim, Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon CITA, Inst Agroalimentario Aragon IA2,CITA, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Pasture-based and small-scale livestock farming systems are the main source of livelihood in the mountain primary sector, ensuring socioeconomic sustainability and biodiversity in rural communities throughout Europe and beyond. Mountain livestock farming (MLF) has attracted substantial research efforts from a wide variety of scientific communities worldwide. In this study, the use of text mining and topic modelling analysis drew a detailed picture of the main research topics dealing with MLF and their trends over the last four decades. The final data corpus used for the analysis counted 2 679 documents, of which 92% were peer-reviewed scientific publications. The number of scientific outputs in MLF doubled every 10 years since 1980. Text mining found that milk, goat and sheep were the terms with the highest weighed frequency in the data corpus. Ten meaningful topics were identified by topic analysis: T1-Livestock management and vegetation dynamics; T2-Animal health and epidemiology; T3-Methodological studies on cattle; T4-Production system and sustainability; T5-Methodological studies; T6-Wildlife and conservation studies; T7-Reproduction and performance; T8-Dairy/meat production and quality; T9-Land use and its change and T10-Genetic/genomic studies. A hierarchical dustering analysis was performed to explore the interrelationships among topics, and three main clusters were identified: the first focused on sustainability, conservation and socioeconomic aspects (T4; T6 and T9), the second was related to food production and quality (17 and T8) and the last one considered methodological studies on mountain flora and fauna (T1 ; 12; T3; TS and T10). The 10 topics identified represent a useful and a starting source of information for further and more detailed analysis (e.g. systematic review) of specific research or geographical areas. A truly holistic and interdisciplinary research approach is needed to identify drivers of change and to understand current and future challenges faced by livestock farming in mountain areas. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Animal Consortium.

Keywords

animal productionmountain agricultureresearch topicsruminantsAgricultura de montañaAgricultural landAgricultureAnimalAnimal productionAnimalsBovineCattleData miningEuropeFarmsLivestockMountain agricultureResearch topicsRuminantsSheepText mining

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Animal due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 10/145, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Veterinary Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.72. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.09 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 6.96 (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-15, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 23
  • Scopus: 25
  • Europe PMC: 9

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-15:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 96.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 95 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Austria; France; Greece; Italy; Norway; Slovenia; Switzerland; United Kingdom.