AGRI-01 Observatory – Agricultural and food economics and rural appraisal
07/AGRI-01 — Agricultural and Food Economics and Rural Appraisal

Network analysis

Research topic of the field
335
publications
7,784
citations
247
researchers
39
institutions
62%
in Q1 journals
The topics most often intertwined with this one, year by year

The topic gathers studies that focus on relationships: among farmers, firms, institutions and consumers, or among authors and scientific articles. Social network analysis is used to study alternative food networks, short supply chains, farmers' markets, social capital and the spread of innovation across territories. Bibliometric analysis is used to trace how a research field has developed. Recent research uses these tools to map the literature on blockchain in supply chains, green infrastructure, medicinal plants and women's entrepreneurship, and to study the governance of digital traceability.

Description written by AI from the keywords, journals, most-cited works and recent works of the topic.

01
Indicators
Output and impact
156
publications since 2021
116
publications 2016–2020
+34%
compared with 2016–2020
19%
share signed by the most active 5%

The last share tells how far the topic passes through few hands: in the field it ranges from 12% to 39%. 19% means that the topic has some reference groups but remains widespread. Signatures are counted, not papers: an article with four authors on the topic weighs four times, because the question is how much of the work passes through few people.

Trend over time and quality of outlets

Documents and citations per year

documentscitations received
502,000381,500251,00013500002008: 3 documents20082009: 3 documents2010: 5 documents20102011: 3 documents2012: 9 documents20122013: 11 documents2014: 14 documents20142015: 14 documents2016: 20 documents20162017: 18 documents2018: 18 documents20182019: 29 documents2020: 31 documents20202021: 24 documents2022: 24 documents20222023: 24 documents2024: 41 documents20242025: 22 documents20252008: 2 citations received2009: 3 citations received2010: 5 citations received2011: 14 citations received2012: 14 citations received2013: 33 citations received2014: 79 citations received2015: 102 citations received2016: 116 citations received2017: 155 citations received2018: 222 citations received2019: 316 citations received2020: 451 citations received2021: 647 citations received2022: 862 citations received2023: 927 citations received2024: 1,160 citations received2025: 1,360 citations received
Citations received each year by papers on the topic.

Journal quartiles (SJR · SCImago)

316with SJR
Q1 196 (62%)
Q2 65 (21%)
Q3 23 (7%)
Q4 32 (10%)

Attention in the last three years

+14%
citations received, relative to the field
+7%
papers published, relative to the field
3,447
citations received 2023–2025

The topic is in line with the field: citations received by its papers went from 1,960 (2020–2022) to 3,447 (2023–2025), while those of the whole field grew 1.55 times. Citations received in those years by all papers on the topic are counted, including older ones.

Who leads the topic in the last three years

  • Hamid El Bilali · Enti stranieri · 504 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Stefano Corsi · MILANO · 203 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Emanuele Schimmenti · PALERMO · 177 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Gianluca Brunori · PISA · 156 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
  • Alessandro Paletto · CREA-PB · 150 citations received 2023–2025 from papers on the topic
02
People
Who works on it

Most active researchers on the topic

By papers on the topic. The last column still shows specialisation, to tell apart those who work on it a lot in absolute terms from those who work on it above all.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topich-indexSpecialisation
Alessandro Paletto CREA – Centro di ricerca Politiche e Bioeconomia 17 35
2.63
Vera Teresa Foti Università degli Studi di Catania 14 18
6.23
Giuseppe Timpanaro Università degli Studi di Catania 12 25
3.03
Gianluca Brunori Università di Pisa 10 37
1.99
Stefano Corsi Università degli Studi di Milano 10 23
4.73
Elena Pisani Università degli Studi di Padova 10 14
7.57
Davide Marino Università degli Studi del Molise 9 20
4.26
Giordano Ruggeri Università degli Studi di Milano 9 13
9.73
Alessandro Scuderi Università degli Studi di Catania 9 25
2.27
Laura Secco Università degli Studi di Padova 9 23
3.86
Davide Viaggi Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 8 31
1.47
Domenico Dentoni Foreign institutions 8 27
3.36
Hamid El Bilali Foreign institutions 8 33
1.58
Stefano Pascucci Foreign institutions 8 33
2.93
Marcello De Rosa Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale 7 19
3.18

Who is most specialised in this topic

Not those who published the most on it, but those who devote the largest share of their output to it compared with the field average. Above 1 there is specialisation; the tick marks parity. Researchers with fewer than three papers on the topic are excluded.

NameInstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Giordano Ruggeri Università degli Studi di Milano 9
9.73
Elena Pisani Università degli Studi di Padova 10
7.57
Vera Teresa Foti Università degli Studi di Catania 14
6.23
Stefano Corsi Università degli Studi di Milano 10
4.73
Davide Marino Università degli Studi del Molise 9
4.26
Laura Secco Università degli Studi di Padova 9
3.86
Domenico Dentoni Foreign institutions 8
3.36
Marcello De Rosa Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale 7
3.18
Giuseppe Timpanaro Università degli Studi di Catania 12
3.03
Stefano Pascucci Foreign institutions 8
2.93

Most active institutions

The number tells how much work on the topic comes from each institution; specialisation tells how much the topic weighs within the institution compared with the field average. A small, focused institution can be more specialised than a large one that does everything.

InstitutionPapers on the topicSpecialisation
Università degli Studi di Catania 63
1.21
CREA – Centro di ricerca Politiche e Bioeconomia 51
1.54
Università di Pisa 48
1.32
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 45
0.88
Università degli Studi di Padova 38
0.82
Università Politecnica delle Marche 37
1.82
Università degli Studi di Firenze 35
1.05
Foreign institutions 30
0.87
Università degli Studi di Milano 29
0.93
Università degli Studi di Perugia 29
1.87
03
Where
In Italy and worldwide

Institutions in Italy

38institutions of the field work on the topic (with at least one paper)
  1. CREA-PB (Roma)43
  2. Bologna28
  3. Catania26
  4. Padova (Legnaro)23
  5. Pisa23
  6. Foggia21
  7. Perugia19
  8. Firenze18
30 more institutions on the map · circles proportional to papers on the topic

International collaboration

    04
    Research
    Topics, journals and publications

    Related topics

    The topics that most often appear in the same papers. The number is the papers in common.

    Governance and institutions · 80 Short food supply chains · 69 Food supply chains · 65 Sustainability assessment · 52 Innovation and technology adoption · 46 Cooperatives and collective action · 28

    Recurring keywords

    social network analysisalternative food networknetworksustainabilitynetwork analysisshort food supply chainbibliometric analysisfood securityfarmer marketfood systeminnovationsocial capitalecosystem servicegovernancebibliometricorganic farmingsocial farmingsocial innovationartificial neural networkbayesian networklocal foodnetworkingprotected arearesilience

    Main journals

    Most cited publications on the topic

    Explore the Observatory → All topics