It is widely acknowledged that research and publications in peer reviewed journals
offer important metrics in describing the academic outputs of higher education institutions
on one hand, and their societal impacts on the other. Peer review is a well-tested
method for quality control and has been successfully deployed over many decades in
academic journals worldwide. But despite the fact that publications on matters related
to sustainable development offer solid evidence of academic activity and excellence,
there is a dearth of literature in this field. In order to address this need, the
European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR) and the Inter-University
Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) have undertaken the World Survey
on Sustainability Publishing and Research in Higher Education (WSSSP-HEI). The paper
has two main aims. The first is to document and showcase trends in scientific publishing
on matters related to sustainable development. The second aim is to contribute to
a greater understanding of this rapidly growing field, by describing the latest developments
and the role played by some of the journals active in this area. Consistent with these
aims, this paper focuses on publications on sustainability in higher education, describes
the methods used in the study and some of its results. It can be seen that despite
the intrinsic value of research on sustainable development in higher education as
a whole, and of publications in this field in particular, such practices are not as
widely developed as one could expect. This paper discusses the possible reasons and
also outlines some measures via which higher education institutions may be able to
take more advantage of the many opportunities that publishing on sustainability offers
to them. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.