Analysis of the current status and hotspots of emergy research based on bibliometrics

Emergy theory and methodology have been widely applied in the study of ecosystems and sustainability. This article employs bibliometric methods and visualization tools (SATI, VOSviewer and CiteSpace) to conduct a systematic statistical analysis of 1,404 emergy-related articles retrieved from the Web of Science database. The results are as follows: 1) Overall, the annual publication volume demonstrates a consistent upward trajectory. China exhibits dominant contributions across all levels—national, institutional, and individual authorship. 2) Emergy-related papers are mainly published in high - quality journals, concentrated in environmental and ecological sciences, especially in themes related to ecosystems, the geobiosphere, sustainable development, and sustainability assessment. 3) Against the backdrop of rapid population growth and climate change, emergy theory has been applied and developed in the field of sustainable development. Emergy research not only explores ways to reduce the impact of human activities on climate change but also provides quantitative tools for decision-makers in combination with a variety of theoretical approaches to promote sustainable evaluation of emerging technology systems. These themes are expected to remain key focuses in emergy research. Additionally, the integration of emergy with emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) shows great potential. 4) Emergy research still faces issues like methodological disputes, data dependency, and insufficient dynamic modeling capabilities. There’s an urgent need to address these challenges, by establishing a standardized methodological framework, developing AI-integrated dynamic models, promoting cross-disciplinary/cross-national cooperation, and advancing the cross-application of bibliometrics and meta-analysis.