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The Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database is widely used to evaluate institutions and researchers. The objective of this study was to analyze trends and characteristics of papers in the subject category of water resources in the ESI database of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Distributions of document type, language of publication, scientific output, and publication of journals are reported in this article. Five indicators (the number and ranking of total papers, first-author papers, corresponding-author papers, independent papers, and collaborative papers) were applied to evaluate country, institute, and author performances. In addition, the numbers of authors cited, numbers of institutes cited, numbers of countries cited, and numbers of subject areas cited were also used to evaluate ESI papers. Results showed that 265 papers, all written in English, were listed in 27 journals in the field of water resources. A review paper was more likely to be included in the ESI than a research paper. Journal of Hydrology published the most papers. The USA and UK were the two leading nations. ESI papers published in the US were more likely to involve inter-institutional collaboration than papers published in the UK. The University of Arizona was the most productive institute. Some papers that were almost excluded from the ESI database appear to have consistently received annual high frequencies of citation. Perhaps the 10 year criterion for inclusion in the ESI should be reassessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study analyzes bibliometric characteristics of Taiwan's highly cited papers published from 2000 to 2009. During this period, Taiwan ranked within the top 30 countries by number of highly cited papers, defined in Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators (ESI) as those that rank in the top 1 % by citations for their category and year of publication. Taiwan made notable progress in world-class research in the two consecutive 5-year periods 2000-2004 and 2005-2009. For the group of highly cited papers from Taiwan, USA, China, Germany, and Japan were the top collaborating countries over the decade. In recent years, Taiwan has increasingly collaborated with European countries whose output of highly cited papers is relatively high and increasing, rather than with its neighboring countries in Asia. Overall, Taiwan produced highly cited papers in all the 22 ESI subject categories during the 10-year period. Taiwan's output of highly cited papers was greatest in the categories of Engineering, Clinical Medicine, and Physics, while those in Agricultural Sciences and Mathematics exceeded the expected output level in relative terms. More detailed analyses would be useful for a holistic understanding of Taiwan's research landscape and their progress in world-class research, combining both bibliometric and non-bibliometric data, such as researcher mobility, research grants, and output from internationally-collaborated research programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small number of studies have sought to establish that research papers with more funding acknowledgements achieve higher impact and have claimed that such a link exists because research supported by more funding bodies undergoes more peer review. In this paper, a test of this link is made using recently available data from the Web of Science, a source of bibliographic data that now includes funding acknowledgements. The analysis uses 3,596 papers from a single year, 2009, and a single journal, the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Analysis of this data using OLS regression and two ranks tests reveals the link between count of funding acknowledgements and high impact papers to be statistically significant, but weak. It is concluded that count of funding acknowledgements should not be considered a reliable indicator of research impact at this level. Relatedly, indicators based on assumptions that may hold true at one level of analysis may not be appropriate at other levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-excited chatter vibration is one of the most unexpected phenomena during the milling operation, which is always combined with time-varying and non-stationary characteristics. This paper presents a milling chatter detection approach combined with the time-frequency analysis (TFA) method and instantaneous frequency and energy aggregation characteristics of the chatter vibration in the milling process. A zoom synchrosqueezing transform (ZST)-based chatter identification approach and several chatter identification indicators are constructed for milling chatter identification. The TFA method ZST is used to characterize the time-varying and non-stationary characteristics of the chatter vibration. The zoom strategy is used to improve the time-frequency resolution and energy concentration of the obtained time-frequency distribution. From an energy aggregation characteristic perspective, 13 instantaneous frequency domain statistic indicators and an instantaneous energy ratio indicator based on the time-frequency distribution obtained by ZST are developed for milling chatter identification. Four groups of cutting tests with both end milling and peripheral milling are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the developed chatter identification indicators, and results show that the developed chatter identification indicators can effectively identify chatter in the milling process and are insensitive to the cutting parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research funding organizations invest substantial resources to monitor mission-relevant research findings to identify and support promising new lines of inquiry. To that end, we have been pursuing the development of tools to identify research publications that have a strong likelihood of driving new avenues of research. This paper describes our work towards incorporating multiple time-dependent and -independent features of publications into a model to identify candidate breakthrough papers as early as possible following publication. We used multiple random forest models to assess the ability of indicators to reliably distinguish a gold standard set of breakthrough publications as identified by subject matter experts from among a comparison group of similar Thomson Reuters Web of Science™ publications. These indicators were then tested for their predictive value in random forest models. Model parameter optimization and variable selection were used to construct a final model based on indicators that can be measured within 6 months post-publication; the final model had an estimated true positive rate of 0.77 and false positive rate of 0.01. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at contributing to the on-going discussion about building and applying bibliometric indicators. It sheds light on their properties and requirements concerning six different aspects: deterministic versus probabilistic approach, application-related properties, the time dependence, normalization issues, size dependence and network indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper adopts the term Future Orienteering to indicate the attitude of openness and preparedness to the future of individuals, communities and organisations. If Futures Studies wants to become an independent field of research, future skills need to be developed with appropriate training paths, and future attitudes and strategies need to be evaluated accurately. Thus, considering the necessity of a measurement system for the evaluation of strategic foresight and future-based activities, this article illustrates a new theoretical model, where special emphasis is placed on the distinction between Forecasting, Foresight and Anticipation, according to the Theory of Anticipation presented in (Poli, Introducing anticipation. In: Poli R (ed) Handbook of anticipation, 2019a); (Poli, Lavorare con Il futuro: idee e strumenti per governarel'incertezza, 2019b); (Poli, Introduction to anticipation studies, 2017). The result is a battery of three synthetic indexes, immediately readable to allow easy comparisons. Here, the following model described represents a preliminary stage in the development of an evaluation system, indeed few suggestions for use will be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to recession in the world economy there is a trend towards a reduction in growth of R&D expenditure in the G7 countries. At the same time countries like China and Korea are investing more in scientific research. We compare the differences in the inputs to science for different countries and explore the level of efficiency in the output of scientific papers with respect to inputs such as manpower and investment. We find that the EU countries are relatively more efficient than Japan, the USA and also China and Korea so far as the production of papers is concerned. However, if efficiency is considered in terms of patents, Japan Korea and the USA are ahead. We compare our results with Albuquerque's model linking patent to paper ratios and development, and find significant deviations for some countries. We deduce that there has been a shift from publishing towards patenting in certain countries and link it to high contribution from the business sector to R&D expenditure. Preliminary results of this analysis have been presented in Basu (In Proceedings of the 14th International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) Conference, ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary comparison has been a constant objective of bibliometrics. The well-known h-index and its alternatives have not achieved this objective. Based on the gh-rating or ghent-rating, a categorization of academic articles into tiers of publications within similar citations ranges, a new ratio is proposed, the high fame hf-ratio. This ratio is calculated as the adjusted average of the weighted factors of the researchers' best articles; it leads to an associated rating also designated by the symbols AAA, AA, A, BBB, B, C, D, ... etc. comparable to financial ratings such as Moody's and S&P ratings. Adding this rating to the h-index forms the high fame HF-rating. The HF-rating provides the average grade of a researcher's best papers benchmarked in their field. This new HF-rating induces some qualitative elements in the evaluation of research, includes more selectivity and mitigates between classic h-indices. This universal HF-rating complements the well-known h-index with a relative indication of its influence in its field that also allows inter-field comparison. The methodology is illustrated with examples of researchers from different disciplines with different distributions of citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A publications quality indicator called high-ranked citations percentage (HCP) is based on an idea that good papers are well cited. HCP was computed as a portion of cumulative citations concerning well cited papers from the total number of citations of an individual. The h-index was used to separate the well cited papers from the others. A testing dataset was composed of researchers who worked in various fields and at various institutions. Their research outputs were characterized by the h-index (h), the number of papers (P), the number of citations (C) and self-citations taken from the Web of Science (WoS). Unlike the h-index, HCP as a relative indicator does not underestimate researchers with shorter or interrupted research careers and does not depend on research fields. The scatter plot of HCP and the h index was employed for ranking of individuals into 4 groups according to its quadrants. The best performing authors had HCP above 70% and h above 15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on leadership shown in Venda, Southern Africa to protect the lungs of the planet and draws out key themes on the way Indigenous wisdom — underpinned by a sense of the sacred and the profane – expressed in solidarity with nature - are vital for protecting forests. It explores indigenous wisdom on their kinship with organic and inorganic sacred totems (plants, animals and features of the landscape) which are protected through relationships that inform governance. The ongoing community of practice and related projects make a case for standing together to address climate change. The paper was developed as part of a University of South Africa project together with the named authors. Mphatheleni Makaulule has developed an a priori and a posteriori approach to Ecosystemic governance that resonates with the work of Wangari Maathai. Makaulule's leadership in Venda that is discussed with fellow project members who are exploring how the agendas for COP 26 could be attained by fostering law informed by Bateson's concept an "ecology of mind – which means an understanding of human beings' place within living systems and our need for both education and laws to protect ecosystems such as forests (which are the lungs of the world) and the water systems (which are the life blood of all living systems). The governance approach in Venda emphasised the need to think in terms of our relationships with all living systems. The idea of extending a sense of solidarity to others is explored deeply with Makaulule and colleagues by considering similar approaches in other places, such as the Amazon where Makaulule spent time learning from shamanic leaders, Ghana (where Akwasi Achemfuor has undertaken research), Northern Territory and South Australia (where McIntyre was mentored by Peter Turner and Olive Veverbrants). The paper also refers to the work of Widianingsih based on an in-depth discussion on the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar community in West Java that has also been protecting the forests for more than 300 years. The authors explore whether attributing personhood to nature, could be regarded as limiting a notion of mystical and pragmatic recognition of interbeing or even a form of colonising the notion of interbeing? We suggest that a community of practice approach (Wenger, 1999, Wenger et al., 2009) to support learning organisations and communities could support two-way education to enable cross cultural, cross disciplinary and transnational learning to support steps towards wellbeing through sharing our understanding of interbeing in dialogue, it became clear that transcendence through totemism, dreams and shamanistic rituals support a sense of oneness with nature, relationality as well as a sense of awe, solidarity and responsibility for others which is being increasingly recognised in the arts and sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the role of Child Well-Being (CWB) in the integration processes of migrant and refugee minors. Through the co-creative development of a new child-centered system of indicators about the integration of migrant and refugee children in Europe the authors discuss a) the prominent role of well-being in this set of indicators, and b) how reappraising these indicators from a well-being approach can contribute to delving into which aspects of CWB are connected to the integration of migrant children. The contributions of this paper open new research paths: on the one hand, the methodology presented provides a reference for future research that can replicate the procedure to build child-centered indicators in disciplines different than migration studies; on the other hand, the results presented suggest not only that well-being has a prominent role in migrant children integration experiences, but also, that reappraising dimensions of migrant children's integration from a well-being approach hints at blurry borders between both concepts. This suggests promising research opportunities to underpin the relationship between integration and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper aims to present the results of the implementation of the C.W.-SMILE tool that recorded child well-being in the second semester of the 2020–2021 school year. This is the fifth round of this ongoing diachronic research. The C.W.-SMILE tool consists of six dimensions: home conditions (D.1), nutrition (D.2), unemployment of guardians (D.3), free healthcare (D.4), moral education (D.5), and leisure (D.6). The first three dimensions concern children's economic well-being, while the latter three dimensions determine children's non-economic well-being. Based on welfare economics, the combination of economic well-being and non-economic well-being constitutes children's general (social) well-being. Each dimension consists of Simple Indicators. The paper also presents the results of the school year as a whole, to help investigate the evolving impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's well-being for more periods. The tool was used to measure the well-being of children in Attica, through questionnaires that were circulated in 22 public schools and three support centers of the organization 'The Smile of the Child' (25 units in total). The sample consisted of 509 children, belonging to three distinct school categories. The results of the second semester are mapped in seven clusters (relating to seven socio-economically homogenous groups of municipalities in Attica). Analysis of the results of the school year 2020–2021 was done based on the data collected from a sample of 1,623 children; in other words, it took into account the data relating to the entire samples that were surveyed in the first and second semesters. The central outcomes of all the previous rounds of the research are verified through a principal component analysis (PCA), and a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) which are employed for the fifth round. Finally, the paper suggests an action plan of social welfare based on a ChoiCo game designed for the needs of the fifth round of the C.W.-SMILE research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) suffer from a lack of national data needed for effective monitoring and implementation. Almost half of the SDG indicators are not regularly produced, and available datasets are often out-of-date. New monitoring approaches using big data are advancing rapidly and can complement official statistics to help fill critical data gaps. However, there is poor information-sharing on the latest innovations and research collaborations across different thematic areas, and limited evaluation of strengths and weaknesses for supporting national monitoring. This paper provides a systematic review of the academic literature over the past 5 years relating to the use of big data to support monitoring of the SDGs. It reviews the state-of-the-art research using big data and advanced analytics to produce new datasets, the alignment of these datasets with the official SDG indicators, the main types and sources of big data used, and the analytical methods applied. We developed a set of evaluation criteria and applied it to highlight some of the strengths and limitations of these datasets derived from big data. We find that recent research has developed a considerable range of new datasets that could contribute to monitoring 15 goals, 51 targets, and 69 indicators. Dominant focal areas of research include land and biodiversity, health, water, cities and settlements, and poverty. Satellite and Earth Observation data were the primary sources used, most commonly applied with machine learning methods and cloud computing. However, several challenges remain, including ensuring the relevance of new datasets for monitoring SDG indicators, cost and accessibility considerations, sustainability aspects, and linking global datasets to nationally owned monitoring processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a long and proud history of world leadership in science and technology, but in the past two centuries it has experienced a period of instability that has challenged that leadership. However, since its political consolidation in the middle part of the 20th Century and its subsequent economic reforms, China’s rise in science has been meteoric. This rise was first detected by the scientometric community through its indicators, but it has now become obvious. Indeed in 2017 the question, “Will China come to lead world science?” was becoming to some, “Does China already lead world science?” This paper tries to make the case that the answer is “yes” (or at least “soon”)—but the answer depends on which metrics one considers. China already leads many countries in some measures of GDP, scientific paper production, researchers, plus high technology manufacturing and exports. China also recently passed the European Union in R&D investment. Even in some of those indicators where China has not yet taken the lead, reasonable forecasts predict that it soon will. However, there are some indicators where China is still far behind. For example while rising, it still lags the U.S. and EU in citations in Western publications, and will take years to catch up. Here, these quantitative measures are supplemented by qualitative ones from WTEC assessments and by survey results of scientists and the public, which present a more nuanced conclusion. While Chinese leadership may be difficult for Westerners to accept, it can be viewed as China merely regaining its historical position of leadership in science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of circular economy (CE) is increasingly prominent in European Union (EU) countries, considering the demand for incorporating renewable resources into end products. Similar to sustainable development dimensions, CE indicators can be classified within economic, social, and environmental protection categories, depending on their measuring scope, and within micro-, meso-, and macro-level, depending on the level of observation. The aim of the research is to determine the impact of CE innovation on CE performance in EU countries by modeling the Eurostat indicators via SmartPLS software. Relying on the relevant literature review, the paper first presents the concept of CE and the composite indicators used for evaluating its specific performances, as well as previous global and European experiences. Further, the study focuses on the modeling options for CE performance composite indicators demonstrating the relationship between the accomplishments of CE and the use of innovative measures at the level of products, services, or processes. Based on the data from EU27 countries for the period 2018–2021, the paper explores the relationship between variable and model composite indicators using SmartPLS software. SmartPLS output results support four assumption paths between CE indicator groups which are also confirmed with convergent and discriminant validity and heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) values. CE path modeling structure confirms the positive connection between CE innovations and CE performance emphasizing the need for providing a supportive environment and funds for innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting a vulnerability and risk assessment (VRA) is a critical step in adaptation planning and implementation. This research paper has assessed how the co-developed approach helped the Government of Nepal and stakeholders in Nepal to agree on and operationalize the vulnerability and risk assessment framework and what works best for the country's context. The methodological framework consists of eight steps including (i) scoping, (ii) reviewing the framework (iii) identifying data sources (iv) exploring data sources, nature, and character (v) data collection, tabulation, filtration, and normalization (vi) weightage and composite value (vii) analysis of the data (viii) identifying climate change impact, vulnerability, and risk. The output of the vulnerability and risk assessment in Nepal presents a compilation of impacts, vulnerabilities, and risks and a description of their context, root causes, and trends. These research-based assessment can be used to draw some possible adaptation options and improved decision-making at the national and sub-national levels. However, there were some challenges faced in analyzing the vulnerability and risks based on the indicators. There was a lack of a multi-year, complete, and uniform database, and difficulties in developing scenarios of hazards due to unclarity on climate change attribution. The lessons from this paper will be important for designing a more practical and country-driven VRA framework and methodology for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While animal welfare concerns are rising globally, this has not been the case with lower- and middle-income economies in Africa and Asia such as Zimbabwe. These developing countries have their own problems which are not reported in developed countries, such as the harsh economic environment, limited technologies and different political and food security priorities. These factors limit focusing on animal welfare. Meanwhile, studies on animal welfare in these countries have been limited. The task of determining animal welfare is a very complex and can sometimes be very subjective since there is no gold standard protocol to be used in many developing countries. This paper reviews the main factors that are used to assess dairy animal welfare at a farm situation. The factors were categorised and generally discussed as drivers and indicators of dairy animal welfare. Key indicators reviewed in this study include but are not limited to production performance indicators, body condition scores, cleanliness scores, presence of clinical disease signs and physiological and behavioural indicators. Dairy animal welfare drivers discussed in this paper include but not limited to the general design of dairy cattle housing, presence of foot bath and shading facilities, presence and use of maternity paddocks, state of feeder and water troughs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing demand for bibliometric assessment of individuals has led to a growth of new bibliometric indicators as well as new variants or combinations of established ones. The aim of this review is to contribute with objective facts about the usefulness of bibliometric indicators of the effects of publication activity at the individual level. This paper reviews 108 indicators that can potentially be used to measure performance on individual author-level, and examines the complexity of their calculations in relation to what they are supposed to reflect and ease of end-user application. As such we provide a schematic overview of author-level indicators, where the indicators are broadly categorised into indicators of publication count, indicators that qualify output (on the level of the researcher and journal), indicators of the effect of output (effect as citations, citations normalized to field or the researcher's body of work), indicators that rank the individual's work and indicators of impact over time. Supported by an extensive appendix we present how the indicators are computed, the complexity of the mathematical calculation and demands to data-collection, their advantages and limitations as well as references to surrounding discussion in the bibliometric community. The Appendix supporting this study is available online as supplementary material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities located in the Arctic often have extreme geographic and environmental contexts and unique sociopolitical and economic trajectories that, when combined with amplified effects of climate change in the region, impact future sustainable development. Well-recognized and standardized sustainable development indicator (SDI) frameworks such as ISO 37120 or UN-Habitat City Prosperity Index are often used to compare data across cities globally using comprehensive sets of indicators. While such indexes help characterize progress toward development and guide short- and long-term decision-making, they often lack relevance to specific contexts or characterize future visions of urban growth. To evaluate the extent of these deficiencies and to provide a comparative analysis of approaches to sustainable urban growth in the Arctic, this paper analyzes city planning documents for five northern cities - Anchorage (USA), Utqiagvik (USA), Reyjavik (ISL), Iqaluit, (CAN), Whitehorse, (CAN) - for goals, targets, and indicators and compare these to thematic areas and indicators defined by ISO 37120:2018 Sustainable Cities and Communities. The results confirm that although international SDI frameworks may be useful for comparative analysis of cities across diverse regions, they exclude important local factors that influence goal-oriented urban sustainability planning strategies employed in the Arctic region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an indicator to 'measure' the extent to which co-publication through international collaboration enhances the value of scientific output of an organisation or agency performing academic research. A second order approach is used which combines a quality proxy (impact) and a quantity or size proxy (number of papers published) to yield a trinity of energy like scalar proxies. From these it is possible to define an index of foreign collaboration and another evenness indicator that shows the size and unevenness of the role foreign collaboration plays in the total academic output of the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The order Odonata has been regularly used as an indicator of the ecosystem's condition. The objective of this review was to analyze the importance of Odonata for environmental assessments (assessment types, statistical approach, life stages, and sampling method, or particular metric), summarizing the current state, the trends, and identifying related research issues in the Neotropical region. Therefore, we selected 62 articles from 2007 to 2018 based on published research to monitor Odonata assessments in the Neotropical region. We compiled a database and ran statistical analyses for the observed frequencies. We found that ecosystem health was the most frequent assessment type and quality the most used objective. In the case of statistical tests and metrics, multivariate analyses and species richness were most used in these papers. However, because there is a great diversity of habitats in this region, there is no unique monitoring protocol to assess the quality of ecosystem health and it is needed to create a proposal for a standard evaluation protocol. Consequently, guidelines for monitoring are presented, and we suggest three stages to establish a specific protocol for each site, which records the set of species most sensitive to the exchange rate evaluated, as well as the use of rarefaction methods, the index of diversity based on the area under the curve, and multivariate analysis, among other recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a selection of general science journals, general medical journals and specialized medical journals, this paper analyses four indicators of epistemic community formation: Synchronous, diachronous, immediate, and continuants. The analyses show that the specialized medical journals display higher levels of epistemic community formation as measured by the percentage of recurring authors. There are only slight differences in the results across analyses of the four indicators. Yet, the analyses of each indicator illustrate different levels of variance. The results further indicate that the level of epistemic community formation, as measured by the percentage of recurring authors, is closely tied to specialization, and could therefore also be considered as yet another indicator of specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The science of polymer solar cells and the technology based on it is now pursued as a very exciting and promising area of research at leading universities, national laboratories, and companies throughout the world. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive and in-depth bibliometric analysis of this area that breaks down scholarly performance into three components-quantity, quality and consistency. The citation data is retrieved from the Web of Science. We identify the most productive organisations, countries, authors and also the most influential journals in which this newly emerging area is published using these criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to collect the most-cited articles of the twenty-first century and to study how this group changed over time. Here the term 'most-cited' is operationalized by considering yearly h-cores in the Web of Science. These h-cores are analysed in terms of authors, research areas, countries, institutions, journals and average number of authors per paper. We only consider publications of article or proceedings type. The research of some of the more prolific authors is on genetics and genomes publishing in multidisciplinary journals, such as Nature and Science, while the results show that writing a software tool for crystallography or molecular biology may help collecting large numbers of citations. English is the language of all articles in any h-core. The core institutions are largely those best placed in most rankings of world universities. Some attention is given on the relation between h-core articles and the information sciences. We further introduce the notions of h-core scores and h-core score per publication, leading to new rankings of countries. We conclude by stating that the notions of h-cores and h-core scores provide a new perspective on leading countries, articles and scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators are widely used tools for evidence-based decision-making today. Yet, even very sophisticated users of indicators often forget or deliberately disregard their limits. Stretching good indicators beyond their inherent limitations may lead to inadequate policy-making. This paper examines how several well-known indicators in the field of governance, justice and the rule of law are used for policy-making in different contexts. It builds from years of field observation, debate participation and meetings with politicians and experts from around the world. Drawing from time-tested social science research principles and methods, the paper concludes with suggestions on the adequate use of indicators for public policy decision making in the broad policy area covered by the newly adopted United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantity and quality are Aristotelian categories. Ever since Galileo, the defining feature of Science is the accurate measure of quantity, e.g., time, length and mass, to begin with. Length and mass are size dependent. Quality remained an elusive category as it is a size-independent feature. It was Archimedes who first brought a revolution in physics by defining density as a size-independent attribute. A similar revolution was effected in the measurement of science when Eugene Garfield introduced the concept of the citation as a unit of measurement and from this, separated quantity (number of publications) from quality (impact). In this article, we interpret impact as a thermodynamic mean instead of a simplistic arithmetic mean. This opens up rich analogies with the conservation laws of mechanics and thermodynamic features linking disorder and unevenness to entropy. Also as in physics, considerations of dimensional homogeneity play a defining role. Without Garfield’s bold initiative, all this will have eluded us for some time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the construction of a performance evaluation system for the inheritance of traditional sports intangible cultural inheritors. In order to ensure the scientific nature and rationality of the indicators, a theoretical model of performance evaluation content is first established. Then, based on the theoretical model, the preliminary selection of indicators is completed, and then the expert screening of indicators is further completed by Delphi method, and the weights of each indicator are established through analytic hierarchy. Finally, in order to verify the application effect of the indicator system in practice, this study conducts an empirical study on the system from the perspective of regional performance evaluation. The results show that the discriminating power and applicability of the evaluation indicator are effective, and the evaluation system has a very distinct epochal and people-centered character. In conclusion, the construction of this evaluation system is of great significance to improve the scientific and standardized level of evaluation of Intangible cultural heritage inheritors. Article highlights: The evaluation object of the system is "people" which breaks the customary paradigm that the evaluation objects are mostly "things". The important guiding spirit of "creative transformation and innovative development" is integrated into the construction of the evaluation indicator system. The rationality of the evaluation indicator system is verified by empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-level fluctuations (WLF) in lakes and rivers, especially their extent, frequency and duration, are dominant forces controlling the functioning of these ecosystems. In particular, WLF play an important role in the lake’s littoral and aquatic–terrestrial interface processes. WLF may take place on different spatial and temporal scales under natural conditions but water levels have been artificially modified in regulated lakes, and their impacts are expected to be enhanced within the actual global change scenarios with forthcoming management problems. This article presents an overview on the literature published on this important topic since 1991 by using journals indexed in the ISI Web of Knowledge. The overall objective was to examine temporal and spatial trends in publications on WLF, the specific aspect of WLF concerned and their main effects. Throughout the article we have used case studies to illustrate different effects of WLF on the variety of lake habitats and indicators that have been studied. Overall, the number of papers published on the subject since the 1990s has risen steadily, when less than ten papers were published each year; until 2006 and peaking in 2005. The greatest number of papers on WLF has been carried out in Europe and North America (c. 73%). These data also showed that the effects of WLF have not been studied equally for different groups of organisms. There is a greater interest on macrophytes, which are the most studied group of organisms (18.4% of the papers). Nearly 7% of the papers deal with algae, and zooplankton and invertebrates account for a 7% followed by fish. WLF effects on ecosystems are very complex, and the biological effects in lakes are greatest in shallow water and littoral areas, where even small changes in water levels can result in the conversion of large areas of a standing-water environment in air exposed habitats. Finally, these data might serve to highlight knowledge gaps still existing on this topic and, in particular, some of the approaches that can potentially contribute to solve several of these lacunae are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraged by the emergence of a new and growing literature on the use of trademark data as complementary indicators of innovation, this paper strengthens the case for such use by offering both qualitative and quantitative evidence in its support. Based on two large trademark and patent databases built for this purpose, the paper makes the argument that careful use of trademark data can improve our understanding of innovation processes across all sectors of the economy. Our databases generate a high correlation coefficient between patents and trademarks in four different scales of aggregation: firm, sector, country, and global. We argue that the combined use of patent and trademark data is better at capturing the whole gamut of innovation that takes place in the economy than the standard patent data alone. We embed our argument and analysis throughout in the main structural changes that have occurred in the global economy since the latter part of the twentieth century. We find that in certain cases, e.g. in service sectors, in sectors where patents are not widely used, and in the case of exporting entities from developing countries, trademark data are better at capturing the extent of technological and non-technological innovation that occurs therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts and their consequences are determined not only by the intensity and frequency of different climatic hazards but also by the vulnerability of the system, society or community exposed. While general agreement exists about the importance of assessing vulnerability to understand climate risks, there is still a tendency to neglect global and regional vulnerability patterns because they are hard to quantify, despite their value in informing adaptation, disaster risk and development policies. Several approaches to quantifying global vulnerability exist. These differ in terms of the indicators they use and how they classify countries or regions into vulnerability classes. The paper presents the structure of selected approaches and explores two indices in depth. The aim of this paper is to assess the level of agreement between selected international indicator-based assessments of vulnerability, at the level of climate regions. Results suggest that the two major global vulnerability assessments analysed largely agree on the location of the most and least vulnerable regions when these assessments are aggregated to a regional scale using the IPCC’s climate regions. The paper then discusses the robustness of the information derived and its usefulness for adaptation, disaster risk and development policies. Measuring progress towards reducing vulnerability to climate change and hazards is key for various agencies and actors in order to be able to develop informed policies and strategies for managing climate risks and to promote enabling conditions for achieving the SDGs and building resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food systems are not sustainable, and efforts to address this are paralyzed by the complex networks of food system actors and factors that interact across sectoral and geographic scales. Actions at the community level can positively contribute toward globally sustainable food systems (SFS). Assessing such contributions has two central challenges: 1) a lack of methods that support alignment between communities and across scales, balanced against the need to involve the community in developing relevant indicators; and 2) the absence of adequate, fine grained data relevant to the community. Addressing these two challenges, this paper illustrates a proposed procedure that supports community engagement with, and assessment of, their contributions. Engaged by a community of Canadian dietitians, researchers used the Delphi Inquiry method, guided by the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, to address the first challenge, and causal loop diagrams informed by the Cultural Adaptation Template to address the second. Indicators were developed for dietitian-identified actions and outcomes for SFS. Modeling indicator interactions provide insight into how some actions are influenced by and reinforce the value placed on SFS within the professional cultural paradigm, as well as priority areas for action and measurement. Process-oriented assessment is useful in the context of partial and subjective understandings of a dynamic system, and supports continual adjustment in action. This article offers theoretical and practical insight for community engagement in addressing some of the systemic challenges in food systems. It accommodates community-based knowledge, applies process-indicators, and emphasizes the importance of cultural paradigms as a driving force of community-level actions, and overall system change. Under current conditions, facilitating SFS literacy among dietitians can amplify adaptations for broader SFS development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Circular economy (CE) is a development priority of the European Union and it is part of the EU industrial strategy. The transition to a more circular economy is an essential contribution to the EU's efforts to develop a sustainable, low carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy. The author focuses her CE-related reflections and research in this paper on the macro-level (research subjects: 28 EU countries), the level which is least represented in scholarly publications addressing CE (as follows from the analysis of literature in the Scopus database). This study aims to fill this gap partially. The aim of this paper is to identify and group the EU-28 countries according to their advancement towards circular economy. CE indicators proposed by the European Commission were used for the analysis. Given the research subjects and after an analysis of the literature they were concluded to be the most adequate. The theoretical part was based on an analysis of the literature, whereas the empirical work used the principal components analysis, hierarchical and k-means clustering and a grade correspondence-cluster analysis. Results: On the basis of the research, the existence of a "two-speed Europe" was identified in terms of EU countries' advancement towards CE. Leading countries, those most advanced in pursuing operation according to CE principles, include Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The second pole accommodates EU countries in which transformation towards CE is happening at the slowest pace. This group includes mainly countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and the countries of the south of Europe. Conclusions: Differentiated levels of advancement of individual countries towards CE result inter alia from the adoption by some of the latter of different development strategies for their economies' transitioning to circular economy (according to recommendations of EU ministers at the Environment Council in June 2016) and also from the differences occurring in social and economic development (it is mostly noticeable between the EU-15 and the EU-13 countries). Unfortunately, as can be concluded from the effects obtained so far, only a few of the adopted development strategies may be considered effective in meeting the challenges of circular economy according to the European Union's standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the significant residuals in the sewage treatment system, sludge treatment and reuse play a pivotal impact on the environmental sustainability study in China. In this paper, two sewage sludge treatment systems have been investigated, calculated, and analyzed, including the conventional treatment system (Scenario A) and improved reuse system (Scenario B), respectively. The results demonstrate that (1) Compared to Scenario A, Scenario B is a comprehensive system, which integrates a sewage sludge treatment system and a brick production system for sludge recycling. (2) After considering the brick system (scenario B), on the one hand, the sludge treatment capacity has been enhanced and raised sludge utilization; on the other hand, negative influences have also generated due to the non-renewable resources input and several outputs. (3) In Scenario A and Scenario B, the input resources part reflects the main impact (about 59.6% in the entire emergy value). (4) In this new paper, the UEVs are 2.73E + 11sej/kg and 6.29E + 11sej/kg in Scenario A and Scenario B, respectively. (5) The emergy sustainability indexes (ESI) are 0.012292 and 0.00848, which express the weak comprehensive effects in Scenario A and Scenario B. (6) Scenario B has a more extensive range of change than Scenario A because of the more resource input for the sensitivity analysis. Given the all discussions, there are two effective approaches to be used for perfecting environmental sustainability in the Scenario A system and Scenario B system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge-based and innovative bioeconomy is a cornerstone for achieving the goals of the European Green Deal. Due to its comprehensive coverage, bioeconomy performance is challenging to assess unambiguously. This paper presents the results of a cross-country comparison of 22 EU countries applying the Complex Bioeconomy Sustainability Index for 2012–2018. Results were compared with results of the TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making method on national bioeconomy strategies in Finland, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Latvia. The research aims to combine a quantitative assessment of bioeconomy output indicators with a qualitative evaluation of bioeconomy strategies of EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When data analysts use linear mixed models, they usually encounter two practical problems: (a) the true model is unknown and (b) the Gaussian assumptions of the errors do not hold. While these problems commonly appear together, researchers tend to treat them individually by (a) finding an optimal model based on the conditional Akaike information criterion (cAIC) and (b) applying transformations on the dependent variable. However, the optimal model depends on the transformation and vice versa. In this paper, we aim to solve both problems simultaneously. In particular, we propose an adjusted cAIC by using the Jacobian of the particular transformation such that various model candidates with differently transformed data can be compared. From a computational perspective, we propose a step-wise selection approach based on the introduced adjusted cAIC. Model-based simulations are used to compare the proposed selection approach to alternative approaches. Finally, the introduced approach is applied to Mexican data to estimate poverty and inequality indicators for 81 municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food insecurity elimination is a major focus of the Sustainable Development Goals and addresses one of the most pressing needs in developing countries. With the increasing incidence of food insecurity, poverty, and inequalities, there is a need for realignment of agriculture that aims to empower especially the rural poor smallholders by increasing productivity to improving food security conditions. Repositioning the agricultural sector should avoid general statements about production improvement, instead, it should tailor to location-specific recommendations that fully acknowledge the local spatial diversity of the natural resource base that largely determines production potentials under current low input agriculture. This paper aims to deconstruct the complex and multidimensional aspect of food insecurity and provides policymakers with an approach for mapping the spatial dimension of food insecurity. Using a set of GIS-based indicators, and a small-area approach, we combine Principal Component Analysis and GIS spatial analysis to construct one composite index and four individual indices based on the four dimensions of food security (access, availability, stability, and utilization) to map the spatial dimension of food insecurity in Vihiga County, Kenya. Data were collected by the use of a geocoded household survey questionnaire. The results reveal the existence of a clear and profound spatial disparity of food insecurity. Mapping food insecurity using individual dimension indices provides a more detailed picture of food insecurity as compared to the single composite index. Spatially disaggregated data, a small area approach, and GIS-based indicators prove valuable for mapping local-level causative factors of household food insecurity. Effective policy approaches to combat food insecurity inequalities should integrate spatially targeted interventions for each dimension of food insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to reconcile two different perspectives and come up with a more comprehensive conceptualization of university autonomy by adopting a stakeholder approach in identifying indicators of university autonomy. One perspective views university autonomy as a protection of academic freedom and the other as a performance enhancer. In order to secure public support for university autonomy, a strategy to satisfy both perspectives is required. A stakeholder approach helps identifying stakeholder interests which leads to an analysis of what is expected in return for university autonomy. University autonomy indicators developed out of these interests would facilitate a measure to evaluate and secure academic freedom and institutional autonomy in a way that secures better support for university autonomy from higher education stakeholders. This paper examines existing literature to identify higher education stakeholders and their interests and comes up with an example of autonomy indicators that reflect these interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackling the many negative health effects of social isolation has been identified as a policy priority in the UK and consequently many local authorities are developing strategies to ascertain its prevalence through the development of social indices. This paper provides a novel assessment of the emerging approach of developing indices to identify social isolation. It provides an overview of a selection of indices being developed by local authorities across England; considers the validity of such quantitative indices; and explores the extent to which more in-depth qualitative data collected at a neighbourhood level is additionally required. It draws on evidence of a social isolation index for older people created by a northern English local authority, assessing its validity through a qualitative sense check; an innovative approach which has not been attempted elsewhere. The paper contributes important knowledge to the growing literature in this field by further developing understanding around the most effective ways of identifying, measuring, and understanding social isolation at a local level. Our findings indicate that an index, alone, is insufficient to fully capture the multifaceted nature of social isolation as relevant indicators, unique to local spaces, which cannot easily be measured quantitatively, are often excluded. The paper offers a significant and original contribution to the debate for both academics who wish to gain a greater understanding of the role indices can play in identifying those most at risk of social isolation, as well as for policy makers and practitioners who are currently grappling with this challenging concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators for evaluating road traffic energy consumption are critical parameters in the research field of road traffic energy consumption. Improving the applicability of energy consumption indicators can promote the development of green transportation in cities. However, there is currently a lack of systematic analysis of energy consumption indicators in research. Therefore, based on a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature, this study divides the indicators for evaluating road traffic energy consumption into two categories: macro (aimed at traffic systems or traffic flow) and micro (aimed at vehicles). These indicators are subdivided into four categories according to their application characteristics, including general, specific, predictive, and comprehensive. This paper provides a complete summary of various evaluation indicators, including their scope of application, advantages, and limitations, and highlights the relationships between them. Additionally, recommendations are made for the future development of evaluation indicators. Research has found that micro-level general indicators serve as the fundamental components of the mathematical structure for almost all other indicators. Specialized indicators primarily evaluate energy consumption in different driving states of vehicles. Predictive indicators are mainly used for assessing transportation energy consumption in simulation conditions. Comprehensive indicators are mainly applied to evaluate the life cycle energy consumption of vehicles or transportation systems. In future research, the performance of indicators can be improved through the design of standardized indicators, enhancement of energy consumption prediction accuracy, and integration of traffic flow parameters. The research contributes to upgrading energy-saving technologies in road transportation and developing sustainable urban transportation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of national goals for achieving a land degradation neutrality (LDN) and the creation of systems of indicators for monitoring is an important strategic task for combating desertification and preventing land degradation in Turkmenistan, due to the implementation of target 15.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the period up to 2030. This paper analyzes the possibility of integrating global indicators of the LDN into the National System for Land Monitoring of Turkmenistan, which is currently being developed, and provides statistical and geoinformation data for the entire territory of the country. It has been found that, despite the new important data obtained using global approaches, reliable monitoring of the LDN based on national data is not fully feasible at present due to the fact that global indicators are not sufficiently confirmed by the available national data and do not correspond to global proxy indicators of dynamics of land cover, productivity, and stocks of soil organic carbon. This article proposes a working list of national analogue indicators and ways to validate them, as well as options for using lists of land use types to compile a matrix of negative and positive transitions with changes in land cover. It is recommended to use cartographic and fund data collected and processed in the late 1980s–90s as a "baseline" for monitoring land degradation, as well as materials on the assessment of the state of specially protected natural areas. Additional and alternative indicators of the LDN, which are of particular importance for Turkmenistan: salinization of soils and lands, soil deflation, climate aridity, and dust storms, are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present the results of implementing a new, multi-dimensional and cumulative tool that records the well-being of children in the 1st semester of the school year 2020–2021, which constitutes the fourth round of an ongoing research. The tool was implemented in Attica through questionnaires circulated in twenty-five schools and three support centers for children and families under the organization, "The Smile of the Child" (twenty-eight bodies in total). The total number of children who participated in the sample was 1,114, belonging to three distinct school categories: the 6th grade of elementary school (10–11 years old), the 3rd grade of junior high (13–14 years old), and the 3rd grade of high school (16–17 years old). The results, mapped out in seven clusters, reveal evident concerns over nutrition and the moral education of students. In addition, the results indicate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of children and reveal with regard to national policy and legislation framework that the status of welfare state in Greece is ineffective and problematic. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study was confirmed through a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and a principal component analysis (PCA).The outputs of MCA reflect and confirm the good effect of "The Smile of the Child" for children in need. Finally, an action plan including the creation of policies based on public finance and fuzzy logic was suggested, the most important being the necessity of the establishment of a new Ministry for the protection of child well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) highlights the behavior of the business toward CSR and their framework of sustainable development (SD), thus helping policymakers understand the role businesses play with respect to the 2030 Agenda. Despite its importance, this is still a relatively underexamined and emerging topic. In our paper, we focus on what businesses communicate about CSR through social media and how this relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We identified the topics discussed on Twitter, their evolution over time, and the differences across sectors. We applied the structural topic model (STM) algorithm, which allowed us to estimate the model, including document-level metadata (time and sector). This model proved to be a powerful tool for topic detection and the estimation of the effects of time and sector on the discussion proportion of the topics. Indeed, we found that the topics were well identified overall, and the model allowed catching signals from the data. We derived CSR communication indexes directly from the topic model (TM) results and propose the use of dissimilarity and homogeneity indexes to describe the communication mix and highlight differences and identify clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to holistically measure the expected resilience of the different countries to a global pandemic like COVID-19. The proposed indicator has been designed looking at the direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our society at different levels, including health and socio-economic aspects. More concretely, the resulting index has been produced by combining 11 different indicators grouped in five categories. It is actually composed of two sub-indicators that aim to measure the expected resilience according, respectively, to the data available in a given moment and to a period of development. The former sub-indicator depends on the actual values of the underpinning indicators, while the latter takes into account only their variation in a given time. In this paper we address 22 countries among the most affected by COVID-19, looking at recent pre-pandemic data and at the development in the past 20 years. As expected, the combination of the two methods determines contrasting results but also a more comprehensive analysis framework. As part of the lesson learnt, we do expect countries to prioritise the increasing of their holistic resilience to situations of pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to establish new, multi-dimensional indicators of child well-being suitable to urban regions such as Attica, Greece, and adjusted to the new form of child poverty that has become apparent during its recent financial crisis. The paper mainly argues that child well-being is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and that the financial crisis produced a specific need for new scientific tools adapted to the particular features that emerged under this circumstance. Within this context, definitions of child well-being and child poverty were developed. With these definitions as foundation, a tool comprising many indicators was formulated to record child well-being; this was applied in Attica through questionnaires addressing 27 public schools and three support centers of the organization, The Smile of the Child, covering two periods: the school years between 2010 and 2018 collectively and the school year 2018–2019 individually. The total number of children in the sample was 878, belonging to three distinct school categories. The results were mapped out in seven clusters. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study was confirmed through a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results reveal that child well-being improved in the period 2018–2019 while there were evident concerns regarding unemployment and whether the education individuals receive is relevant to what kind of people they ought to be. Finally, an action plan focusing on these dimensions and some of the clusters along with an auxiliary tool for decision-making founded on fuzzy logic have been suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journals have been ranked on the basis of impact factors for a long time. This is a quality indicator, and often favours review journals with few articles. Integrated impact indicators try to factor in size (quantity) as well, and are correlated with total number of citations. The total number of papers in a portfolio can be considered a zeroth order performance indicator and the total number of citations a first order performance indicator. Indicators like the h-Index and the g-Index are actually performance indicators in that they integrate both quality and quantity assessment into a single number. The p-Index is another variant of this class of performance indicators and is based on the cubic root of a second order performance indicator called the exergy indicator. The Eigenfactor score and article influence are respectively first order quantity and quality indicators. In this paper, we confirm the above relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of transportation in the economic process is central. Transportation’s benefits, however, can be dampened because of its environmental and social cost. A central question then arises as to the degre of sustainability of a national transportation system. In the present paper we develop a mathematical model to define and assess national transportation sustainability. The model relies on a number of indicators encompassing environmental impact, efficiency, safety, and economic contributions. Statistical data manipulations and fuzzy multistage reasoning result in an overall sustainability index over [0, 1]. A sensitivity analysis uncovers those indicators with the highest potential for improving transportation sustainability. Thirty European countries are ranked and the most important indicators for each country are pinpointed. It is demonstrated that greatest improvement will be achieved with the reduction of passenger car use, road freight transportation, and fatal accidents. Counterintuitively, Norway, Austria, Denmark, and Luxembourg rank at the bottom of the list together with Bulgaria, Greece, and Malta. This is due to their poor environmental performance and their small sustainability progress over 2010–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide various maps of the evolution, current situation and future lines of sustainability indicators for tourism destinations research. The bibliographic analysis of 440 papers (after refinement) published from 1995 to 2021 reveal the existence of three stages over time and an enormous increase during the last eight years. The results suggest the multidisciplinary nature of the subject that has developed from environmental and social areas to scientific and technological areas, and the existence of seven clusters around the knowledge base. The key research topics have evolved from an essentially instrumental approach to the applicability of developments to management and specific perspectives. The seven following topics merit further research: (1) proposals for different types of destination, (2) indicators construction methodologies, (3) fulfilment of SDGs, (4) development of international frameworks, (5) role of host communities, (6) interactions between stakeholders and (7) focus to climate change effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to elaborate a diagnosis and performance matrix concerted on the increment of human capital value by sharing tacit knowledge in non-profit organizations. The following objectives were defined: determine which indicators of tacit knowledge sharing are appliable; determine the measures to be implemented, aiming the augmentation of tacit knowledge sharing and learning organizational. Interviews were conducted with the commanders of volunteer fire brigades in Portugal. It was possible to create a diagnosis and performance matrix to increase the tacit knowledge sharing in these organizations. The application of this matrix improves the tacit knowledge sharing and consequently increases the human capital value. The option of a multiple case research of organizations such as voluntary fire brigades is unique in its action and identity, enabling such organizations with competencies to improve their performance with the purpose of mitigating tragic circumstances that may lead to the loss of human lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature demonstrates the contribution of short food supply chains (SFSC) to regional economies and sustainable food systems, and acknowledges their role as drivers for sustainable development. Moreover, different types of SFSC have been supported by urban food policies (UFP) over the few last years and actors from the food chain became part of new institutional settings for urban food policies. However, evidence from the sustainability impact assessment (SIA) of these SFSC in urban contexts is limited. Our paper presents an approach for the development of an SIA framework for different SFSC types. In addition, a practical application of the tool in four metropolitan regions (Berlin, London, Ljubljana and Nairobi) is tested. The conceptual development of the SIA framework is based on an in-depth analysis of existing SIA frameworks and methods for assessing the sustainability of agriculture, food chains and food systems and adapted to the specific needs of analysing SFSC in metropolitan regions. The operational value and utility of the framework and the tool were tested with social and natural scientists and local stakeholders. The assessment results demonstrate that SFSC seems to be more sustainable than the baseline (long global food chains) in the social dimension, but also feature specific strengths and weaknesses concerning their economic and environmental sustainability. This might give an indication for regional adjusted strategies and food chain innovations that improve the sustainability performance may be required. We found the tool useful for framing the dialogue between food chain actors, consumers and policy, because it makes benefits and trade-offs of the chain types operating in an urban–rural context more visible and communicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]