Research Trend Vis-à-vis Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria

ABSTRACT While Nigeria is among the countries that subscribed to the adoption of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, little is known about Nigeria’s efforts and investment in research towards actualising these goals. The thrust of this study is to track the trend of SDGs research in Nigeria. The bibliometrics technique was adopted to analyse journal articles on the SDGs by Nigerian authors, using the SCOPUS database. The findings revealed a scant growth of research publications on SDGs, especially within the first two years of its adoption (2015-2017). However, in the third year, there was an exponential growth in research publication output, which grew marginally thereafter. This implies that the SDGs have not been internalised among the populace and are largely missing in scholarly debates and policy discourse. The study recommends that special funding should be allocated for SDGs related research projects to actualise the seventeen SDGs in Nigeria.