Evaluation of International Studies in Geographical and Environmental Education via the Use of Statistics and Scientometrics

Abstract

This work uses nonparametric statistics and Shannon's entropy (diversity) formula to analyze certain scientometric and statistical aspects of papers published in the journal "International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education" from 1992 to 2009. It appears that researchers in the field of geographical and environmental education have shifted their focus since 2004. Among the most common themes that have emerged over the past 18 years, "teacher education" ranks highest, followed by "values & attitudes" and "inquiry & problem solving." d) IRGEE citations rise every year, c) "GIS" and "Sustainability" remained the most "stable" topics in terms of publishing priority throughout the course of the 18 years, e) The average topic diversity of articles published from 1992 to 2009 is 82.7% of the maximum thematic diversity, which is quite high; this indicates that the Journal has the potential to draw a large audience for the 10 areas it has covering thus far.