Mapping two decades of research on climate change and women's reproductive health: A bibliometric analysis...

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a determinant of reproductive and maternal health, yet the scope, evolution, and structural dynamics of this research domain remain underexplored. Bibliometric approaches can clarify thematic priorities, geographic imbalances, and knowledge gaps.

This study systematically maps the global research landscape on climate change and women's reproductive and maternal health from 2000 to 2024, examining temporal trends, thematic clusters, citation networks, collaboration patterns, and geographic distributions, with a particular focus on epistemic and equity-related imbalances.

Bibliometric analysis of 378 peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, combining performance analysis with science mapping techniques.

Datasets were harmonized and analyzed using Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and pyBibX. Analyses included co-occurrence mapping, trigram analysis, keyword evolution, bibliographic coupling, and citation and collaboration network analysis. Through co-occurrence mapping and trigram analysis, we identified dominant biomedical framings while revealing marginalized perspectives; through collaboration and citation network analysis, we traced how knowledge production is concentrated in the Global North despite vulnerabilities being greatest in the Global South.

The field has expanded rapidly since 2020, consolidating around biomedical endpoints such as preterm birth, fertility, and maternal morbidity. Research output and influence are dominated by high-income countries, particularly the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Australia. Female scholars (e.g., Kovats, Bonell, Filippi) are central to collaboration networks, but Southern contributions remain underrepresented and often embedded in asymmetrical North-South partnerships. Journal productivity is led by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and Environmental Research. The field remains predominantly biomedical, with limited integration of justice-oriented and intersectional frameworks.

Research on climate change and women's health has matured substantially, establishing causal pathways between environmental stressors and adverse reproductive outcomes. However, epistemic inequities persist, with knowledge production concentrated in the Global North and underrepresentation of Global South leadership. Advancing the field requires equity-driven collaborations, interdisciplinary approaches, and the integration of feminist and decolonial perspectives to ensure inclusive and just knowledge production.