07/AGRI-01 — Agricultural and Food Economics and Rural Appraisal

Valentina Maria Merlino✓ verified

Researcher · TORINO
SCIENZE AGRARIE, FORESTALI E ALIMENTARI
ORCID0000-0003-1894-2058
23
h-index
1,311
citations
78
publications
69%
in Q1 journals
2013
first paper
01
Indicators
Output and impact
33
g-index
39
i10-index
10
co-authors in the field
0.865
mean SJR

Working style and trajectory ?

14
career years
1.64
m-quotient
5.37
topic diversity
21
autonomy
m-quotient · 1,64 (field median 0.80) · bar at the top of the scale
Topic diversity · 5,37 (field median 4.50)

Output and quality

Documents and citations per year

documentscitations received2026: current year
2050015375102505125002013: 2 documents20132014: 1 documents20152017: 4 documents20172018: 4 documents2019: 7 documents20192020: 6 documents2021: 4 documents20212022: 11 documents2023: 7 documents20232024: 11 documents2025: 14 documents20252026: 7 documents20262013: 1 citations received2014: 6 citations received2015: 7 citations received2016: 9 citations received2017: 19 citations received2018: 12 citations received2019: 60 citations received2020: 79 citations received2021: 92 citations received2022: 131 citations received2023: 164 citations received2024: 197 citations received2025: 304 citations received2026: 224 citations received (current year)
Citations received each year by all papers.

Journal quartiles (SJR · SCImago)

74with SJR
Q1 51 (69%)
Q2 17 (23%)
Q3 1 (1%)
Q4 5 (7%)
first indexed publication in 2013  ·  41 different outlets · 79% open access · 69 papers co-signed with others in the field · 5% with international co-authors (4 papers out of 78)
Article 70 · Conference paper 2 · Book chapter 2 · Erratum 2 · Editorial 1 · Review 1

Recognition

3 papers are in the top 5% most cited among all papers of the field published in the same year. The threshold is recomputed year by year.
02
Collaboration
Network, projects and conferences

Collaboration in Italy

2institutions of the field co-signing papers, besides their own (with at least one joint paper)
  1. Bari3
  2. Catania1
own institution · circles proportional to joint papers

International collaboration

    Conference presentations

    Contributions presented at the conferences of the field whose programme the Observatory keeps.

    Main co-authors in the field

    Works with 10 researchers of the 07/AGRI-01 field. The number is the papers signed together.
    Co-authorInstitutionJoint papers
    Stefano Massaglia TORINO 55
    Danielle Borra TORINO 47
    Simone Blanc TORINO 33
    Antonina Sparacino TORINO 19
    Filippo Brun TORINO 16
    Rocco Roma BARI 2
    Stefano Bruzzese TORINO 2
    Raffaele Zanchini TORINO 2
    Giuseppe Antonio Di Vita CATANIA 1
    Alessandro Petrontino BARI 1
    03
    Research
    Topics, journals and publications

    Research topics of the field

    Topics of the Observatory, among the 60 tracked, on which this researcher has published: the area of each box is proportional to the papers, the percentage is on the total of their papers. A paper can touch several topics, so the shares do not add up to one hundred.
    Consumer behaviour · 33 papers · 42%Consumer behaviour42% of papersLivestock and animal welfare · 23 papers · 29%Livestock and animal welfare29% of papersChoice experiments · 14 papers · 18%Choice experiments18% of papersSustainability assessment · 14 papers · 18%Sustainabilityassessment18% of papersEconometric and statistical methods · 13 papers · 17%Econometric andstatistical methods17% of papersAgri-food marketing and communication · 13 papers · 17%Agri-food marketing andcommunication17% of papersInnovation and technology adoption · 7 papers · 9%Innovation andtechnologyadoption9% of papersFood labelling and information · 6 papers · 8%Food labellingand information8% of papersFood supply chains · 6 papers · 8%Food supplychains8% of papersAlternative proteins · 5 papers · 6%Alternativeproteins6% of papers

    Relative specialisation

    How much a topic weighs here compared with the whole field: above 1 there is specialisation, below 1 the topic is less present than average. The grey tick marks parity. Topics with fewer than three papers are excluded, where the ratio would say little.
    TopicPapersRelative specialisationIndex
    Livestock and animal welfare23
    7.44
    Choice experiments14
    3.25
    Alternative proteins5
    3.23
    Consumer behaviour33
    3.19
    Agri-food marketing and communication13
    3.05
    Econometric and statistical methods13
    2.83
    Food labelling and information6
    2.70
    Sustainability assessment14
    1.46
    Innovation and technology adoption7
    1.28
    Food supply chains6
    0.82

    Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    38 papers contribute to at least one of the 17 Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. Source: OpenAlex.
    Obiettivo 2: Sconfiggere la fame26
    Obiettivo 3: Salute e benessere1
    Obiettivo 4: Istruzione di qualità1
    Obiettivo 5: Parità di genere1
    Obiettivo 12: Consumo e produzione responsabili15
    Obiettivo 13: Lotta contro il cambiamento climatico3
    Obiettivo 15: Vita sulla terra3

    Keywords of the publications

    sustainabilitybest worst scalingcluster analysisconsumer preferenceassortment planningconsumerconsumer behaviorconsumer perceptioncow milklatent class modelplant based beverageprincipal component analysisquality attributeanimal welfareattitude

    Main journals

    The outlets where this person publishes most often. The name links to the journal page, with who publishes there in the field, the topics covered and the trend over time. Quartile and SJR are from SCImago.
    JournalPapersQuartileSJR
    AIMS Agriculture and Food 9 Q2 0.373
    Foods 5 Q1 1.061
    Quality - Access to Success 5 Q4 0.227
    Animals 3 Q1 0.722
    Future Foods 3 Q1 1.125
    Journal of Marketing Communications 3 Q1 1.099

    Most cited publications

    04
    Tools
    Report and bibliography
    🖶 Print report (PDF) indicators, charts and the full list of publications, updated to 21/10/2026 · generated by the owner of the profile, after signing in
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    Explore the Observatory →All researchersProfile of TORINO
    Profile generated by the Observatory of Italian Agricultural and Food Economics — 07/AGRI-01 — Agricultural and Food Economics and Rural Appraisal. Updated 21/10/2026. Values (h-index, citations) change over time.
    Data are processed from third-party sources (Scopus, SCImago) and provided for information only, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy or timeliness. They are not an assessment of the quality of research or of people, in line with the CoARA commitments on reforming research assessment. The Observatory is not liable for errors or for decisions taken on the basis of this information. Reports and corrections: info@agecon.org.
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    How to read these numbers

    Technical definitions of the indicators on this profile. They describe how papers circulate in the indexed literature: they do not measure their quality, originality or usefulness.

    h-index

    The largest h such that at least h papers have received at least h citations each. It grows slowly and never goes back; it rewards steady output more than a single highly cited paper.

    g-index

    The largest g such that the g most cited papers add up to at least g² citations. Unlike the h-index it accounts for how much the top papers are cited. Computed excluding reviews: a review collects citations because of its review function, and a single one can shift the result by several points.

    i10-index

    Number of papers with at least ten citations.

    Career years

    reference year − year of the first indexed paper + 1

    They are counted from the first indexed paper, not from appointment: it measures activity in the literature, not seniority. Those who published during their PhD have a career longer than their position.

    m-quotient

    h-index ÷ career years

    Relates the h-index to career length. It avoids comparing a newcomer with someone who has published for thirty years: an h of 12 after eight years and an h of 12 after thirty describe different trajectories. In the field the median is 0.79 and half of the researchers lie between 0.50 and 1.12. The bar below the value shows the gap from the median and stops at double: 42 people out of 494 are above that threshold.

    It remains an indicator of citation volume divided by time. It does not distinguish those who changed field, had interruptions, or work on topics with slow citation cycles.

    Topic diversity

    H = −Σ pk · ln pk

    Shannon entropy computed on keywords, where pk is the share of the k-th keyword in the person's output. It is high for those who touch many subjects in a balanced way, low for those who focus. In the field it ranges from 0 to 6.15: half of the researchers lie between 3.88 and 4.97, the median is 4.57. The bar below the value shows the gap from the median, with the vertical tick marking it: it reads like the bar of the specialisation index, further down this page.

    There is no good value. Focusing on a few topics and ranging over many are two legitimate ways of doing research, and this number does not decide which is better.

    Autonomy

    min(200 ; 100 ÷ mean co-authors)

    Inverse index of the mean size of the author team. It is 100 for those who sign with one co-author on average, 50 with two, 33 with three; it rises above 100 for those who often sign alone, and the cap at 200 keeps a few single-author papers from dominating the scale. Co-authors are counted on Scopus identifiers, not names: two authors with the same surname and initial would appear as one.

    It describes a disciplinary habit more than an individual choice. In experimental sciences twenty authors are the norm, in agricultural economics much less so: comparing the two worlds with this number would make no sense.

    Co-authors in the field

    People of the 07/AGRI-01 field with whom the person has signed at least one paper. External co-authors, who are the majority, are not counted.

    Mean SJR and Q1 share

    SJR is the outlet prestige indicator computed by SCImago; the quartile places the journal within its category. The Q1 share is the percentage of papers published in first-quartile journals. They concern the outlet, not the single paper: a rarely cited article in a Q1 journal remains rarely cited.

    Papers in the top 5% most cited

    The comparison is made within the publication year, because a 2010 paper has had fifteen years to collect citations and a 2024 one has not. For each year the papers of the corpus are taken, excluding reviews, and the threshold is the number of citations of the paper in position ⌈n × 5%⌉. Years not yet concluded are excluded.

    Sources and limitations

    Bibliographic data from Scopus (Elsevier), quartiles and SJR from SCImago. Each profile is built from a Scopus author identifier: a duplicate, incomplete or contaminated profile affects all indicators. If something looks wrong, it can be reported from the personal area.

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