BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan Volume 11.
Number 1.
May 2025 A Sinta Ningrum.
Salwa Nurfaiziya .
ISSN: 2442-6954 e-ISSN: 2580-2151 Doi: https://doi.
org/10.
31292/bhumi.
Land Policy Research Development: A Bibliometric Analysis Sinta Ningrum1*.
Salwa Nurfaiziya 2 1Department of Public Administration.
Faculty of Social and Political Sciences.
Padjajaran University.
Jawa Barat.
Indonesia *Corresponding Author: sinta.
ningrum@unpad.
Received: October 10, 2023.
Reviewed: May 27, 2025.
Accepted: August 23, 2025 Abstract: Research on land policy has received attention from researchers.
Since the land policy was first published in 1916, research trends have continued to grow and expand.
However, only some articles explain the development of issues discussed in research on land policy.
Hence, this study aims to analyse bibliometric characteristics and content of papers on land policy published in Scopus-indexed journals from 1916-2023.
We used protocol to analyse 1265 articles using VOSviewer.
The result shows that there are five group topics discussed by scholars, namely land policy, land use, land tenure, land ownership, and China.
The United States has the most publications and citations.
The Chinese Academy of Science and Thomas Hartmann are recognised as institutions and authors who published most on this topic.
The Land Use Policy Journal is the most essential source.
China seemed to overtake US dominance in Land Policy research but was not followed by other Asian countries.
There are topics for further investigation, namely land relations, land transfer, rural land, and land policy change.
Keywords: Bibliometric analysis.
Land policy.
VOSviewer.
INTRODUCTION
The world faces a food crisis due to declining agriculture productivity, shrinking farmland, and reduced farmer households (Chien, 2015.
Muyanga & Jayne, 2014.
Tagliarino et al.
, 2018.
Xie & Jiang, 2.
Massively, land use has changed from agricultural land to industrial land or others.
There has been a decline in the number of agricultural households worldwide (Ceballos et al.
, 2021.
Chen et al.
, 2021.
Karim & Mohammadghasemi, 2021.
Mahmud & Riley, 2021.
Zhu et al.
, 2.
Food and Agriculture Organization reports that 638 and 720 million people met hunger in 2024.
The increasing world population, especially in urban areas, has increased the need for land to meet the needs of people's homes (Firmansa et al.
, 2020.
Hosseinifarhangi et al.
Rini et al.
, 2.
In contrast, horizontal housing is still the primary choice of residents.
In some countries, especially developing countries, it is rather difficult to change the habit of residents living at home from horizontal dwellings to vertical dwellings .
The world is also experiencing environmental changes caused by climate change that threaten the sustainability of ecosystems (Cai et al.
, 2021.
Estoque et al.
, 2020.
Li et al.
Uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and deforestation to meet human needs can harm the environment and natural ecosystems (Binte Mostafiz et al.
, 2021.
All articles published in Bhumi: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.
0 International license.
88 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 Chen et al.
, 2021.
Hosseini et al.
, 2021.
MihajloviN & aorceviN, 2.
This phenomenon can cause natural disasters such as landslides, floods, and soil erosion, threatening natural resources and the vision of sustainable development (Du et al.
, 2014.
Liu & Feng, 2016.
Saint-Macary et al.
, 2.
Food crises, increasing housing needs, and environmental changes show the increasing importance of land availability to overcome these problems (Debrunner & Hartmann, 2020.
Fitton et al.
, 2019.
Huambachano & Cooper, 2021.
Virtriana et al.
, 2.
The availability of agricultural land is the main prerequisite for increasing food production to reduce hunger levels while reducing the poverty rate of the earth's population (Mengesha et al.
, 2023.
Reilly et al.
, 2012.
Renzaho et al.
, 2.
Ensuring food security is essential for every country in the agricultural sector (Pawlak & KoCodziejczak, 2.
contrast, the world's land capacity and carrying capacity to produce food in quantity and quality are declining (Abdullina et al.
, 2018.
Das & Nonhebel, 2.
The sustainability of the agricultural sector has been damaged and neglected so that farmers' capacity to meet people's food needs has decreased (Jongerden et al.
, 2.
Formulating land policy as a strategy for the protection and sustainable use of agricultural land is crucial.
(Kalfas et al.
, 2023.
Li & Zhang, 2022.
Wang et al.
, 2.
Land policy is part of public policy that solves problems with principles, directions, and guidelines the government has agreed upon (Auzins et al.
, 2022.
Han & Zhang, 2014.
Rugema et al.
, 2.
The policy lies at the heart of the country, aiming to increase productivity and contribute to social, economic, political, and environmental development and poverty alleviation related to land management (Garcya-Ruiz & Lana-Renault, 2011.
Nyamah et al.
, 2017.
Turok & McGranahan, 2013.
Zhou et al.
, 2.
Inappropriate implementation will become a severe obstacle to the sustainable development of a country (Bardhan et al.
, 2015.
Simbizi et al.
, 2.
Only regions with a wealth of superior farming resources and the superiority of a dominant agricultural industry still survive (Albasri et , 2023.
Fan et al.
, 2.
Research conducted by scholars is vital to study so that we can find out the tendency of researchers' thinking to face current world problems and predict and anticipate future In addition, knowing the history of thought through issues/topics discussed by previous researchers can help us plan, consider alternative policies to be taken, and develop further research.
The bibliometric method is widely used because it is computerised and statistically reliable for obtaining literature and information reviews and identifying research trends on specific topics (Abdul & Yu, 2020.
Chaturvedi & de Vries, 2021.
Hung, 2017.
Krefis et al.
This research uses bibliometric analysis to identify published records and evaluate research in specific fields (Y.
Zhang et al.
, 2020.
Zhao et al.
, 2.
So we analyze bibliometric characteristics and content of papers on land policy published in Scopus-indexed journals Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
from 1916-2023 in terms of The Top Ten rankings of each research indicator, the year of publication, country, institution/affiliation, author productivity, journal sources, and articles with the most citations.
While prior studies on land policy development have predominantly employed qualitative assessments, focusing on legislative reviews, policy narratives, or case-based descriptions.
This research addresses this gap by introducing a quantitative analytical approach, thereby providing measurable insights that differentiate it from the largely descriptive body of existing literature.
METHODS
This paper is an evolutionary literature review study to find issues trending and related in the land policy area from 1916 to 2023.
The research stage was conducted with an initial search based on "Article title.
Abstract.
Keywords" using the keyword "land policy" on February 24th, 2023, on Scopus.
The search results obtained a total of 1,927 documents.
Furthermore, the navigation was restricted to papers in English, limited to "Document type" generated from Article, and limited "Source type" developed from the journal, with the initial year of publication being limited from 1916 to 2023.
The research strategy used a search operation consisting of TITLE-ABS-KEY ("land policy") AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar")) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, "English")) AND (LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, "j")) so that we get 1,265 articles.
We obtained articles from the Scopus database based on the year of publication, country, institution/affiliation, author productivity, journal sources, and journal with the most citations.
Then, we analysed based on the top 10 rankings using Microsoft Excel 2016.
Continued, we made a map based on network and density visualisation using VOS viewer 16 software.
The number of occurrences of keywords is at least 5 out of a total 413 meets the threshold.
The performed steps and protocol of this study are illustrated in Figure 1.
90 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 Figure 1.
Retrieval Process and Literature Analysis of this Study Source: Author, 2025
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Land Policy Research by Year Publication From 1916 to 2022, publications on land policy have continued to grow.
It began with one publication on land policy in the Scopus database in early 1916.
Then, in the 2000s, a minimum of 10 articles were published, which continued to increase with the highest number of publications .
According to Figure 2, this topic has attracted Number of Annual Publication Year Figure 2.
Trends in Land Policy publication in Scopus Database from 1916-2023 Source: Research Data Process .
Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
Land Policy Research by Country Based on the growth of publications from the Scopus database, the topic of land policy is attracted origin authors from 100 countries.
The United States is listed as the country with the most published sources on the topic of land policy .
,960 citation.
, followed by China .
,790 citation.
United Kingdom .
,719 citation.
, and the Netherlands .
,208 citation.
However, regarding the quality of the Paper calculated based on the number of sources public shows that articles from Australia have the best quality .
, followed by Hong Kong .
, the Netherlands .
, the United Kingdom .
, and the United States .
Although the US has more articles published in the last decade.
China has recently begun dominating with more articles published and cited.
United States China United Netherla Canada Germany Australia Kingdom South Africa Ethiopia Hong Kong H-Index Total Papers (TP) Total Citations (TC) Quality of Papers (TC/TP) Figure 3.
Top 10 Countries Publishing Land Policy Research Source: Research Data Process .
Land Policy Research by Institutions /Affiliation The result of bibliometric analysis based on author affiliation shows that from 1916 to 2022, 160 institutions contributed to research on land policy.
Table 1 shows the ten most affiliated institutions that issue research results on land policy in the Scopus database.
The first Article included in the "10 most affiliated" category was published in 1996 by Delft University of Technology.
As shown in Table 1, the Chinese Academy of Sciences occupies the top ranking of affiliated institutions that publish land policy topics .
and becomes the affiliate with the most citations .
3 time.
with a publication.
In addition, five institutions in China are the top ten Institutions Publishing Land Policy Research.
92 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 Table 1.
Top 10 Institutions Publishing Land Policy Research Rank Institutions HTotal Total Paper Index Paper Citation .
Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research 2006 Chinese Academy of Sciences Delft University of Technology Radboud University Utrecht University University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Zhejiang University Wageningen University Research Renmin University of China Nanjing University Source: Research Data Process .
Quality Paper Land Policy Research by Author The Scopus database recorded 433 authors who make articles individually or in groups.
Table 2 describes the top 10 authors who have published articles on land It is noted that Thomas Hartmann from Wageningen University & Research has published 13 articles since 2009 and has been cited 177 times.
This was followed by Edwin Buitelaar from Universiteit Utrecht.
Netherlands, with nine papers cited 227 times.
Although Borras Saturnino M from China Agricultural University only published six papers, he is ranked first in all cited sources .
Compared with Hartmann, who published more articles .
but have been less cited .
Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
Table 2.
Top Ten Authors Based on Published Articles Rank Author Name Hartmann.
Thomas Buitelaar.
Edwin Borras.
Saturnino Needham.
Barrie Njoh.
Ambe J.
Azadi.
Hossein Deininger.
Klaus Franco.
Jennifer C.
Thiel.
Fabian Wang.
Jing Institutions 1st Paper Total (Yea.
Paper Wageningen University Research.
Wageningen.
Netherlands Utrecht University.
Utrecht.
Netherlands China Agricultural University.
Beijing, 2007 China Radboud University.
Nijmegen.
Netherlands University of South Florida.
Miami.
Ghent University.
Ghent.
Belgium The World Bank.
USA.
Washington, , 1993 United States Transnational Institute (TNI).
The Hague, 2008 Netherlands Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.
Frankfurt am Main.
Germany Beijing Forestry University.
Beijing, 2007 China Source: Research Data Process .
Total Citation Quality of Paper Land Policy Research by Source Publication We obtained 1265 articles on land policy topics that were published in 848 journal Table 3 shows that Elsevier Publisher is the main and most cited reference source by researchers in the world, followed by Wiley-Blackwell, where three of the top ten source articles were published.
Then, the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) Publisher, whose journal Land and Sustainability ranked third as a reference source for land policy researchers.
Table 3 also shows that Land Use Policy is the journal with the most published land policy topics .
and has been cited 4170 times.
Regarding the quality of the paper, the top ranking was the Journal of Agrarian Change, which published ten articles with 623 citations.
94 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 Table 3.
Top 10 Sources Publication Based On Research Articles Rank
Source Article Publisher Land Use Policy Country Habitat
International Sustainability Switzerland
American Journal of Agricultural Economics Land Reform
Land Settlement
Cooperatives Elsevier
MDPI
Elsevier
MDPI
WileyBlackwell CiteSc
SJR*
SNIP
Total Citation Quality of Paper Food and Agricultur Organizati on of the United Nations Taylor & Francis WileyBlackwell Journal of Peasant Studies American Journal of Economics and Sociology Urban Studies SAGE Journal Of WileyAgrarian Blackwell Change *SJR = ScImago Journal Rank.
SNIP = Source Normalized Impact per Paper Land Policy Articles with The Most Citations The land policy publications have recorded 1265 articles in the Scopus database with 17,932 citations.
The first publication, entitled "General Botha's native land policy" (Harris, 1.
, has never been cited.
Table 4 displays the top 10 articles with the most citations.
Land Use Policy Journal published three of ten papers with the highest citations.
Land Use Policy Journal is the dominant publication source.
Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
Table 4.
Top 10 Articles with The Most Citations Rank Title Article (Author.
Yea.
Author.
Year Source Title Land policy reform in China: Chengri Ding.
Land Use Policy Assessment and prospects Borras.
Franco.
Land grabbing in Latin America Journal Gomez.
Kay, & and the Caribbean Peasant Studies Spoor, 2012 Who owns CLand's Land? Policies, property rights, and Peter Ho, 2001 China Quarterly deliberate institutional ambiguity The evolution of the World Bank's Deininger & World Bank land policy: Principles, experience.
Binswanger.
Research and future challenges Observer Land-use changes and policy Wang.
Chen, dimension driving forces in China: Shao.
Zhand, & Land Use Policy Present, trend, and future Cao, 2012 Testing for Strategic Interaction Journal Jan Among Local Governments: The Urban Brueckner, 1998 Case of Growth Controls Economics Global land-water Science of the AgricuLandal Land Chen et al.
, 2018 Total freshwater use embodied in Environment worldwide supply chains Customary vs.
private property Chimhowu & Journal rights? Dynamics and trajectories Woodhouse.
Agrarian of vernacular land markets in sub2006 Change Saharan Africa Land-use changes and land Wang.
Lin, policies evolution in China's Glendinning, & Land Use Policy urbanization processes Xu, 2018 Long-term urban growth and land Zitti.
Ferrara, use efficiency in Southern Europe:
Sustainability Perini.
Carlucci.
Implications for sustainable land (Switzerlan.
& Salvati, 2015 Source: Research Data Process .
Total Citation 96 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 Bibliometric of Scopus Indexed Land Policy Research Based on Keywords Network Visualization Map of The Land Policy Issues Using VOSviewer, we found 5 clusters of policy issues.
Cluster 1 .
n re.
, with 109 items, consists of land use, agricultural Land, sustainable development, environmental policy, and policy.
Cluster 2 .
n gree.
, with 96 articles, consists of land policy, land use planning, land market, and urban development.
Cluster 3 .
n blu.
, with 79 items, consists of land management, land tenure, land reform, urban planning, and land ownership.
Cluster 4 .
n yello.
presents 71 articles on policy approaches, rural policies, rural areas, land policies, and rural development.
Cluster 5 .
n purpl.
, with 58 items, consists of China, land use change, urbanization.
Eurasia, and Asia.
Figure 4.
Network Visualization Map of Land Policy Research Based on Keywords Source: Author, 2025 Figure 4 shows network visualization of 1265 Land Policy Research that cooccurrence divided into 13,095 links and 22,081 total link strength.
Table 5 shows the top 10 keywords with the highest occurrences and full link strength.
It found four keywords with the most occurrences: land management, land tenure, land reform, and land ownership.
Land management is defined as using land resources to meet human needs through appropriate management practices according to its features and requirements to maximize the economic and social benefits of the Land (Romyn-Chaverra et al.
, 2023.
Swardhana & Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
Jenvitchuwong, 2023.
Yegizaw & Ejegu, 2.
It is hoped that land management can maintain and increase the long-term potential and ecological support function of these land resources (Abab et al.
, 2023.
Setiabudhi et al.
, 2023.
Wale et al.
, 2.
Improper land management can disrupt production and the natural balance of Land Fields(Okumah et al.
The discussion of land management is attractive for writers because of the broad debate on controlling use and efforts to increase land resources to create sustainable land Furthermore, the keywords land tenure and land ownership have the same meaning as "to hold" because they relate to regulations and arrangements as legal or customary rights among people as individuals or groups.
Land tenure determines how ownership rights to Land constitute access to the right to use, transfer, allocate, manage, and control land resources as an essential part of the social, political, and economic structure (Ajefu & Abiona, 2020.
Ekesa et al.
, 2020.
Gao et al.
, 2.
Land tenure is often categorized as private, communal, open access, and state, et al.
(Achiba & Lengoiboni, 2020.
Kansanga et al.
, 2020.
Nyenyezi Bisoka & Ansoms, 2020.
Rigolon et al.
, 2.
Many governments in various countries are implementing the land reform concept, namely changes to the land ownership system intended to improve community welfare (Mendola & Simtowe, 2015.
Zhang & Xia, 2.
Land reform is done by redistributing Land from people who own large areas to farmers or communities who work on it (Vasconcelos, 2.
The concept of land reform varies from time to time according to the function of the Land itself, ranging from a production factor, a store of value and wealth, a status symbol, and even a source of social and political influence (Resosudarmo et al.
, 2019.
Rusenga, 2020.
Vilpoux et al.
, 2.
Table 5.
Top 10 Keywords with Density "Occurrences" and "Total Link Strength" on Land Policy Research Rank Keywords Cluster Occurrences Total Link Strength Land policy Cluster 2 Land use planning Cluster 2 China Cluster 5 Land management Cluster 3 Land use Cluster 1 Country tenure Cluster 3 AgriLandural Land Cluster 1 Land use change Cluster 5 Land reform Cluster 3 Land ownership Cluster 3 Source: Research Data Process .
98 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 The density visualization shows the density/emphasis on the research group, which is used to see parts of research that are mostly or rarely done.
Figure 5 shows that research topics on land policy were discussed by researchers in 5 large clusters .
arked in bright yello.
, consisting of land policy, land use, land tenure, land ownership, and China.
China has come to the attention of researchers as a subject, object, and locus of research.
Meanwhile, the topics marked in blue are rarely discussed, such as ecosystem, gender relations, land readjustment, land contamination, and welfare.
Figure 5.
Density Visualization Map of Land Policy Research Based on Keywords Source: Research Data Process .
Table 6 shows keywords with the lowest occurrences and total link strength, including land relations, land transfer, rural, policy change, welfare, capacity building, property, territory, land tenure security, and Mozambique.
These keywords are rarely researched but might find a novelty for future research.
Table 6.
Keywords with Rarely Occurrences on Land Policy Research Ningrum & Nurfaiziya.
Land Policy Research Development.
Rank Keywords Land relations Cluster Cluster 1 Occurrences Total Link Strength Land transfer Cluster 4 Rural Cluster 3 Policy change Cluster 2 Welfare Cluster 1 Capacity building Cluster 3 Property Cluster 3 Territory Cluster 3 Land tenure security Cluster 4 Mozambique Cluster 4 Source: Research Data Process .
The Trend of Land Policy Publications The bibliometric analysis result shows that the trend of land policy publications for more than a century .
had increased.
While at the beginning of 1916, there was only one published Article, but in 2022, it was recorded as producing 109 article publications, and even at the beginning of 2023, in February, there were already 16 articles published in Scopus.
The United States has the most article production .
, followed by China .
The number of published articles is in line with the number of citations.
The United States has the most citations .
, followed by China, with 3,790 sources.
However, if calculated based on the quality of the Paper.
Australia gets the first position with a score of 24.
6, while the United States is in the eighth position with a score of 17.
The institution that published the most journals and citations was the Chinese Academy of Science .
, which cited 1,353 times, even though the first publication was still new .
The highest quality of affiliated papers was obtained by the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences .
Thomas Hartmann.
Edwin Buitelaar, and Satursino Borras are the most productive authors in publishing on land policy topics compared to 433 other authors.
Land Use Policy.
Land.
Habitat International.
Sustainability Switzerland, and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics are the journals that publish the most articles on land policy topics.
It is also known that three of the top ten journals are published by Wiley-Blackwell, followed by Elsevier and MDPI.
It is recorded that 1,265 articles in the Scopus database have obtained 17,932 citations, and the Article that occupies the top position with the most citations is entitled "Land Policy Reform in China: Assessment and Prospects," published by the journal "Land Use Policy" with a total of 397 sources.
In addition, the result mapping articles based on keywords using VOSviewer on a network visualization map found that research in the field of land policy is divided into 5 100 BHUMI: Jurnal Agraria dan Pertanahan, 11 .
May 2025 clusters, consisting of cluster 1 land policy .
, cluster 2 land use .
, cluster 3 land tenure .
, cluster 4 land ownership .
, and cluster 5 China .
The most dominant cluster is cluster 3, which consists of land management, land tenure, land reform, and land ownership.
The most common keywords in article publications are land policy and land use planning .
Furthermore, the lowest keywords or topics in the publication of land policy articles consist of land relations, land transfer, rural, policy change, and welfare.
Land and environmental issues are future research topics that might have the possibility of finding a novelty.
CONCLUSIONS
Research on land policy has attracted attention from researchers.
The research trends on land policy issues have continued to grow and expand.
Most land policy research is carried out by the U.
, followed by countries in Europe and, in the last decade, dominated by China.
The Chinese Academy of Science and Thomas Hartmann are recognized as institutions and authors who published most on this topic.
At the same time.
The Land Use Policy Journal is the most essential source.
Over the past century, the tendency of researchers in the field of land policy can be classified into 5 group topics, namely land policy .
, land use .
, land tenure .
, land ownership .
, and China .
However, for further research, the issues of land relations, land transfer, rural Land, and land policy change might be hot issues to be conducted and help us develop alternative policies.
REFERENCES