Bibliometric analysis of the scientific production in forestry-related scientific fields

On the occasion of the reorganization of disciplinary fields (DF) which is under implementation by the MIUR (Italian Ministry for Research and Education), the scientific production of the Italian forest research in two characterizing disciplines (AGR05 Forest management and Silviculture, and AGR06 Wood technology and Forest Operation) has been qualitatively investigated over the period 2005-2017. Using a text mining software, 2.112 scientific articles indexed in the SCOPUS database were analyzed and the evolution over time of the Italian forest research in the above disciplines was examined. The results indicate that ecosystem functions and services have pushed forest research to overcome the aspects linked to wood production (which still remains an important competence of the two DFs), to tackle topics aiming to understand the functioning and functionality of forest ecosystems, provide tools for monitoring forest dynamics and highlight the contribution of forests and urban green areas in contrasting climate change in terms of adaptation and mitigation. As regards the AGR06 sector, studies on forest operations have been mainly focused on issues related to the forest-energy supply chain, while for wood technology the enhancement of structural uses, the modified wood, and the conservation of Wooden Cultural Heritage have emerged. Therefore, the reorganization of disciplinary fields must certainly take into account the traditional Italian forestry thinking and the aspects related to planning, management and close-to-nature forestry, but also the evolution of forestry research in the past 15 years, which led to an intense scientific activity and production, must be considered. In defining the new declarations, it will therefore be appropriate firstly to consider the peculiarity in the area of Agricultural Science, and then the specificity of skills and research that each one of the two sectors carries forward both jointly and separately, thus ensuring to both sectors an adequate representation in autonomous profiles and domains.