The Role of Environmental Communication on Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Systematic Review and Future Research
Description
The data for this study consists of peer-reviewed journal articles collected through a systematic search of major academic databases, including Scopus and Web of Science. The search covered publications from 1999 to 2025, using a combination of keywords and Boolean operators aligned with the research focus. The outcome was the following keywords: “environmental” OR “environment” OR “sustainability” AND “media” AND “communication” AND “eco-conscious*” OR “pro-environmental” AND “behavior”. After an initial retrieval of 1465 records, a multi-stage screening process was conducted. Titles, abstracts, and keywords were first reviewed against pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Duplicates and irrelevant works were removed. This process yielded a final dataset of 122 studies, which were then subjected to full-text review and coding. The dataset was systematically charted according to key variables, including publication year, journal/source, methodology, theoretical framework, context (geographical and organizational), and main findings. These categorizations provided the foundation for thematic analysis and synthesis, enabling the identification of trends, research gaps, and emerging directions in the literature.
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The method of assembling of the dataset comprises the sub-stages of identification and acquisition. The identification, in this study, involved the critical process of determining studies used for the review based on certain criteria. As opposed to dissertations, conference papers, and industry reports, the review focused on empirical and peer-reviewed studies to prioritize source quality. The source quality was assessed using MMAT (Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool), given that this study retrieved empirical studies with various types of methods (e.g., content analysis, experiments, qualitative, quantitative, etc.) (Stern et al., 2020). The MMAT was utilized because it provides consistency, simplicity, and quality to the sources; it is also attested as a well-suited assessment tool for interdisciplinary research like the present study in environmental communication and pro-environmental behavior (Hong et al., 2018). The acquisition was executed using a structured keyword search on two recognized databases: Web of Science and Scopus. Web of Science was adopted as the primary database based on its resourcefulness in source acquisition (Martín-Martín et al., 2018; Zhu & Liu, 2020; Pranckutė, 2021). Scopus has also earned recognition in research for its broad capacity for systematic literature review and was therefore employed as a supplementary or secondary database (Zhu & Liu, 2020; Pranckutė, 2021). Developing the keywords required a review of the literature and deliberation within the team (Paul et al., 2021). This produced a group of recurring words and interrelated terms used in the field of environmental communication. The outcome was the following keywords: “environmental” OR “environment” OR “sustainability” AND “media” AND “communication” AND “eco-conscious*” OR “pro-environmental” AND “behavior”. The search start date on both databases was set to 1995, and the end date was 2025 (in March, the time of the data retrieval). The output of the search, however, places the earliest paper in 1999 and the latest in 2025. The search took place on March 7, 2025. Afterwards, downloading was done between March 10 to 14, 2025, to prepare for the next SPAR-4-SLR phase of arranging.
Institutions
- Zayed University - Abu Dhabi Campus