A Review of Topics and Trends across Five Decades of Coastal Management Journal

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the topics covered by Coastal Management Journal (CMJ) over the course of its nearly five decades of publication. The analysis looks for trends and changes in the field of Coastal Management across topics and categories (groups of topics) that have been published by CMJ. It identifies geographical locations (at the state, national, regional and international levels) that have been mentioned by papers published in CMJ and identifies changes in geographical representation over time. The research was conducted using a mix of literature review techniques that helped identify emergent topics found within the titles and abstracts of CMJ papers. CMJ was founded within a year of the passage of the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act. It has been a respected platform within the field of Coastal Management for five decades during which time the concept has been applied at the policy level within the United States and adopted into practice by many nations and intergovernmental organizations around the world. CMJ has also adapted its response to changing coastal management issues and the change in the needs of coastal management practitioners over the course of its publication history. Throughout its 47-year publication history CMJ has significantly increased its international representation and scope and has seen a number of changes in terms of topic representation. These include a substantial increase in the number of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise papers that it has published, as well as an increase in the number of papers it has published that focus on the importance of Marine Protected Areas. The most common topics published within the pages of CMJ are related to Policy, Planning, Protection and Economics, while the largest category of identified topics contains those that are related to Human Dimensions.