DOI: 10.5061/dryad.44j0zpcmk
title: Research on the benefits of nature to people: How much overlap is there in citations and terms for ‘nature’ across disciplines?

description: Research on the diverse benefits of nature to people is characterised by a
 broad range of disciplines involved, encompassing a variety of approaches,
 methods and terminologies. While a diversity of approaches is valuable, it
 can lead to difficulties in integrating and sharing findings and could
 form a barrier to effective knowledge exchange, hindering the development
 and applications of research outputs. As a starting point for this scoping
 review, we chose four broad research areas (medicine, psychology,
 education and environment), selected to represent disparate approaches to
 research on the benefits of nature to people, within and across which to
 explore overlap in citations and terms used to describe nature. We
 conducted expert consultation and a snowball-based approach to source
 publications, resulting in a sample of 210 papers, spanning multiple
 disciplines within each of our four research areas. For each paper, we
 recorded the discipline of the journal in which it was published
 (publishing discipline), the discipline of its first author (first-author
 discipline), the number of times journals of each discipline were cited in
 its bibliography (cited discipline) and the term(s) used in the paper’s
 title or abstract to describe the aspect of nature being explored (nature
 term). Cited disciplines were significantly different between publishing
 and first-author disciplines, with papers from psychology, education and
 public health citing distinct communities of papers. However, disciplines
 generally cited a wide range of other disciplines, with articles in
 medical journals being particularly broadly cited. Nature terms were
 significantly different between publishing and first-author disciplines,
 with some degree of consistency within disciplines (e.g., education papers
 consistently used a narrow range of nature terms, such as ‘outdoor
 learning’). However, there was a notably high range of nature terms used
 within psychology and public health papers, indicating that research from
 these disciplines may be particularly prone to being overlooked by search
 strings. The wide range of disciplines cited is encouraging, since this
 indicates that diverse research areas are generally aware of each other’s
 work. However, to avoid unnecessary expansion of nature terms and support
 searchability, we propose four key terms for nature: (‘outdoor learning’
 OR ‘outdoor education’), (‘nature’ OR ‘natural’), (‘green space’ OR
 ‘greenspace’) and (‘biodiversity’ or ‘trees’), which could be used across
 disciplines. We particularly propose that at least one of these be
 included in every paper, and all four should be included in review search
 strings. This is likely to result in better understanding of the valuable,
 disparate contributions made by different disciplines to this expanding
 and important topic.
description: # Research on the benefits of nature to people: How much overlap is there
 in citations and terms for ‘nature’ across disciplines?
 This dataset is a list of
 210 papers, all representing research into the benefits of nature to
 people, which we used to conduct a scoping review on this topic. As a
 starting point for this scoping review, we chose four broad research areas
 (medicine, psychology, education and environment), selected to represent
 disparate approaches to research on the benefits of nature to people,
 within and across which to explore overlap in citations and terms used to
 describe nature. We conducted expert consultation and a snowball-based
 approach to source publications, resulting in this sample of 210 papers,
 spanning multiple disciplines within each of our four research areas. For
 each paper, we recorded the discipline of the journal in which it was
 published (publishing discipline), the discipline of its first author
 (first-author discipline), the number of times journals of each discipline
 were cited in its bibliography (cited discipline) and the term(s) used in
 the paper’s title or abstract to describe the aspect of nature being
 explored (nature term). ## Description of the data and file structure This
 dataset comprises three data files: '01_Sample of 210
 papers.csv', '02_Cited journal disciplines.csv' and
 '03_Cited disciplines.csv'. #### 01\_Sample of 210 papers.csv
 This data file represents the raw data used for this paper. ###### Column
 A: Number This column shows the individual numbered paper in our total
 sample of 210 papers. ###### Column B: Title This column shows the title
 of each indiviudal paper. ###### Column C: Nature term source This column
 shows whether the nature term (See Column D) used by this paper came from
 the paper's title or abstract. A paper's abstract was only
 consulted in no nature term was found in its title. ###### Column D:
 Nature term This columns shows the term(s) used in the paper’s title or
 abstract to describe the aspect of nature being explored. ###### Column E:
 Nature term category This column shows the category into which each nature
 term was assigned. Options are 'Biodiversity', 'Forest
 bathing', 'Forest school', 'Green',
 'Natural', 'Nature', 'Outdoor',
 'Restorative', 'Trees', 'Urban',
 'Other' and 'Multiple'. For full details of these
 categories, see Table 3 of the published paper. ###### Column F: Journal
 This columnn shows the journal in which each paper was published. ######
 Column G: Link This column contains a URL to each published paper. ######
 Column H: First author This column shows the first author of each
 published paper. ###### Column I: Year published This column shows the
 year in which each paper was published. ###### Column J: Source This
 column shows the source of each paper. The options are
 'initial', 'expert' or 'snowball'. ######
 Column K: Source detail This column gives extra detail about the source of
 each paper (See Column J). For 'initial' papers, source detail
 is 'own selection'. For 'expert'-suggested papers,
 this column shows the anonymised, consulted expert(s) who suggested the
 paper. For 'snowball' papers, this column lists the number of
 the paper (See Column A) whose bibliography each paper was sourced from.
 ###### Column L: Research area This column shows the research area to
 which each of the 10 benchmark papers and 47 papers resulting from the
 expert consultation process were assigned. Options are
 'medicine', 'psychology', 'education' and
 'environment'. For papers sourced via the snowball process (See
 Column J), this column lists 'NA'. ###### Column M: Publishing
 discipline This column shows the discipline of the journal in which each
 paper was published. This was decided from a combination of a journal’s
 title and scope (title and summary for grey literature, or title and blurb
 for books). Options are 'biology', 'education',
 'environment', 'geography', 'medicine',
 'psychology', 'public health', 'science',
 'social science' and 'urban planning'. ###### Column
 N: First-author discipline This column shows the discipline of the first
 author of each paper. This was decided by looking at a combination of the
 first author’s affiliation and list of publications. Options are
 'conservation', 'education', 'environment',
 'geography', 'medicine', 'psychology',
 'public health' and 'urban planning'. ###### Column O:
 Number of citations This column shows the number of citations in each
 paper's bibliography. ###### Columns P-BJF: Each of these column
 headers shows an individual journal, or other type of source, listed in
 the bibliographies of the 210 papers in the sample. Each columns shows the
 number of times each of these journals, or other source types, are cited
 in the bibliographies of each of the 210 papers. #### 02\_Cited journal
 disciplines.csv This data file shows details of all individual journals,
 or other types of sources, listed in the bibliographies of all 210 papers
 in the sample, including which cited discipline each journal, or other
 source type, was assigned to and the number of times each was cited across
 all 210 bibliographies. ###### Column A: Citation This column lists all
 individual journals, or other types of sources, listed in the
 bibliographies of all 210 papers in the sample. ###### Column B: Type This
 column shows the type of cited source. Options are 'book',
 'conference', 'grey literature', 'journal',
 'lecture', 'magazine', 'newspaper' and
 'software'. ###### Column C: Cited discipline This columns shows
 the discipline to which each citation is assigned. Options are
 'biology', 'education', 'engineering',
 'environment', 'geography', 'medicine',
 'psychology', 'public health', 'science',
 'social science', 'urban planning' and
 'other'. ###### Column D: Count This column shows the number of
 times each individual journal, or other source type, was cited across the
 bibliographies of all 210 papers in the sample. #### 03\_Cited
 disciplines.csv This data file shows the same information as in
 '01_Sample of 210 papers.csv', but instead of Columns P-BJF
 listing the numbers of times each journal, or other source type, was cited
 in the bibliographies of each of the 210 papers, Columns P-AA show the
 numbers of times journals, or other types of sources, in each cited
 discipline category were cited. Categories are 'biology',
 'education', 'engineering', 'environment',
 'geography', 'medicine', 'other',
 'psychology', 'public health', 'science',
 'social science' and 'urban planning'. ###### Column
 A: Number This column shows the individual numbered paper in our total
 sample of 210 papers. ###### Column B: Title This column shows the title
 of each indiviudal paper. ###### Column C: Nature term source This column
 shows whether the nature term (See Column D) used by this paper came from
 the paper's title or abstract. A paper's abstract was only
 consulted in no nature term was found in its title. ###### Column D:
 Nature term This columns shows the term(s) used in the paper’s title or
 abstract to describe the aspect of nature being explored. ###### Column E:
 Nature term category This column shows the category into which each nature
 term was assigned. Options are 'Biodiversity', 'Forest
 bathing', 'Forest school', 'Green',
 'Natural', 'Nature', 'Outdoor',
 'Restorative', 'Trees', 'Urban',
 'Other' and 'Multiple'. For full details of these
 categories, see Table 3 of the published paper. ###### Column F: Journal
 This columnn shows the journal in which each paper was published. ######
 Column G: Link This column contains a URL to each published paper. ######
 Column H: First author This column shows the first author of each
 published paper. ###### Column I: Year published This column shows the
 year in which each paper was published. ###### Column J: Source This
 column shows the source of each paper. The options are
 'initial', 'expert' or 'snowball'. ######
 Column K: Source detail This column gives extra detail about the source of
 each paper (See Column J). For 'initial' papers, source detail
 is 'own selection'. For 'expert'-suggested papers,
 this column shows the anonymised, consulted expert(s) who suggested the
 paper. For 'snowball' papers, this column lists the number of
 the paper (See Column A) whose bibliography each paper was sourced from.
 ###### Column L: Research area This column shows the research area to
 which each of the 10 benchmark papers and 47 papers resulting from the
 expert consultation process were assigned. Options are
 'medicine', 'psychology', 'education' and
 'environment'. For papers sourced via the snowball process (See
 Column J), this column lists 'NA'. ###### Column M: Publishing
 discipline This column shows the discipline of the journal in which each
 paper was published. This was decided from a combination of a journal’s
 title and scope (title and summary for grey literature, or title and blurb
 for books). Options are 'biology', 'education',
 'environment', 'geography', 'medicine',
 'psychology', 'public health', 'science',
 'social science' and 'urban planning'. ###### Column
 N: First-author discipline This column shows the discipline of the first
 author of each paper. This was decided by looking at a combination of the
 first author’s affiliation and list of publications. Options are
 'conservation', 'education', 'environment',
 'geography', 'medicine', 'psychology',
 'public health' and 'urban planning'. ###### Column O:
 Number of citations This column shows the number of citations in each
 paper's bibliography. ###### Column P: No citations\_biology This
 column shows the number of citations in each paper's bibliography
 that were published in a biology journal. (See Table 2 of the published
 paper for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see
 '02_Cited journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals
 assigned to biology.) ###### Column Q: No citations\_education This column
 shows the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in an education journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper for
 criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 education.) ###### Column R: No citations\_engineering This column shows
 the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in an engineering journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper
 for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 engineering.) ###### Column S: No citations\_environment This column shows
 the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in an environment journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper
 for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 environment.) ###### Column T: No citations\_geography This column shows
 the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in a geography journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper for
 criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 geography.) ###### Column U: No citations\_medicine This column shows the
 number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were published
 in a medicine journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper for criteria
 for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited journal
 disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to medicine.)
 ###### Column V: No citations\_other This column shows the number of
 citations in each paper's bibliography that were published in a
 journal in the 'other' category. (See Table 2 of the published
 paper for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see
 '02_Cited journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals
 assigned to other.) ###### Column W: No citations\_psychology This column
 shows the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in a psychology journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper for
 criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 psychology.) ###### Column X: No citations\_public health This column
 shows the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in a public health journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper
 for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 public health.) ###### Column Y: No citations\_science This column shows
 the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in a science journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper for
 criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 science.) ###### Column Z: No citations\_social science This column shows
 the number of citations in each paper's bibliography that were
 published in a social science journal. (See Table 2 of the published paper
 for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see '02_Cited
 journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals assigned to
 social science.) ###### Column AA: No citations\_urban planning This
 column shows the number of citations in each paper's bibliography
 that were published in an urban planning journal. (See Table 2 of the
 published paper for criteria for each cited discipline category, and see
 '02_Cited journal disciplines.csv' for details of all journals
 assigned to urban planning.)