A Bibliometric Analysis of local parliament and mining industry: Current trends and future directions

The mining industry plays a pivotal role in economic development but also presents complex challenges in governance, environmental sustainability, and social justice.Local parliaments are essential actors in ensuring accountability and legislative oversight, yet their role in extractive governance remains limited in scholarly inquiry.This study addresses this gap by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map research trends, identify influential contributors, and trace thematic evolutions in the field.Data were collected from the Scopus database, covering publications between 1990 and 2025, with inclusion criteria focusing on documents that explicitly address mining or extractive industries, connect to governance or parliamentary oversight, and consider environmental or socio-political impacts.Bibliometric techniques were applied using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix (R-package) to analyze publication dynamics, co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic trajectories.The analysis identified 884 documents published in 423 sources, revealing an annual growth rate of 0.9 percent but relatively high citation averages, underscoring the field's academic significance despite modest expansion.The thematic landscape demonstrates a transition from early industrial and economic perspectives toward broader concerns such as sustainability, social impact assessment, corporate social responsibility, human rights, and environmental governance.Leading scholars including Añón JCR, Vanclay FM, and Bebbington AJ have shaped the intellectual foundations of the field, while institutions in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom dominate in productivity.Contributions from the Global South, particularly Latin America and Africa, add vital context-specific insights.Overall, the findings show that research on local parliaments and extractive industries is evolving into a multidimensional and internationally collaborative field.Future studies should integrate emerging themes such as climate justice, indigenous rights, gender perspectives, and just energy transitions to ensure that extractive governance promotes both sustainability and equity.