Organic agriculture in Romania: exploring sustainability pathways through a bibliometric analysis and a hierarchical framework

Agricultural systems research needs to address how system components interact under climate change and socio-economic pressures. Organic agriculture is hypothesized to foster resilience and sustainability by integrating ecological, social and economic dimensions, yet its systemic role within national research landscapes in Eastern Europe remains underexplored. This study analyzes the evolution of organic agriculture research in Romania and identifies system-level interactions among key thematic domains. A dual-method approach combined a bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed literature on organic agriculture in Romania published between 2014 and 2024, using VOSviewer software, with a hierarchical framework to examine dynamic relationships among research themes. Four dominant clusters were identified: (1) sustainability and agricultural trends; (2) agricultural production and yield; (3) market and consumer behavior and (4) policy, value and indicators. Organizing these clusters into a parent-sibling-child hierarchy revealed interdependencies and temporal shifts in research emphasis. Consumer and market themes integrate production and sustainability domains, indicating a maturing systems-oriented research field. The hierarchical framework highlights how policy environments, market dynamics and technical practices interact to influence sustainability performance and system resilience in organic agriculture. It provides actionable guidelines by linking strategic sustainability goals (parent) with policy–market coordination (sibling) and farm-level implementation (child), supporting targeted climate resilience interventions. Findings demonstrate a shift toward a more integrated, systems-oriented research landscape in organic agriculture in Romania. The study underscores the importance of aligning policy, market dynamics and production practices to enhance resilience and sustainability outcomes. These insights provide a basis for guiding future research and policymaking toward coherent, system-level responses to climate change challenges.