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Bibliometric and review of the research on circular economy through the evolution of Chinese public policy

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Abstract

In over 10 years, China remarkably progressed in the research and practice of circular economy. This paper presents a comparative study of the development of circular economy driven by the China’s public policy and research. We conducted a bibliometric literature review based on the core journals listed in China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Scopus and Web of Science databases with the CiteSpace V over the period of 2000–2016 as the background. We selectively analyzed 248 articles to determine research trends and gaps in China and then combined them with the practices of circular economy in China’s three “Five-Year Plans”, namely, the 10th, 11th, and 12th, to summarize the development path of the research and practice of circular economy based on their interaction while exploring new potential directions of research. Results show evident interactive feedback between public policy and academic research. After 2010, the number of published Chinese domestic journals showed a decreasing trend and an upward trend in international journals and received increased international attention. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, circular economy research and practice significantly developed. When China entered the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020), the development of circular economy played a much important role as it is promoted as an important part of the ecological civilization and comprehensive construction of well-off society (in 2020). The corresponding theoretical study and practice are expected to further make remarkable progress.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks for everyone who helped write this article. Including thanks to academician Yi Qian, the part of circular economy development is reference to her speech, thanks to my friend Mr. Yixin Zhang, provide a great help in the paper content and polish, thanks to associate professor Lei Shi of Tsinghua University for making valuable suggestions, thanks to the graduate students for their support in writing the thesis.

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  1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, 100 Ping Le Yuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100124, China

    Tiening Cui & Jimei Zhang

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  1. Tiening Cui
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Correspondence to Tiening Cui.

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Cui, T., Zhang, J. Bibliometric and review of the research on circular economy through the evolution of Chinese public policy. Scientometrics 116, 1013–1037 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2782-y

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