Research designs examining the benefits of nature exposure

This dataset records features of the research design and methodology used in 125 studies examining the benefits of nature exposure for human wellbeing. 

Methods
To identify studies that examined the benefits of nature exposure for human well-being, we conducted a search in Clarivate’s Web of Science (WoS) database on August 22, 2022 using the following Boolean search terms: (“greenspace” OR “green space” OR “bluespace” OR “blue space”) OR ((“nature” OR “nature-based”) NEAR/1 (“experience*” OR “expos*” OR “connect*” OR “immers*”)). We stratified our sample by the following time periods: 2009-2010, 2011-2011, 2013-2014, 2015-2016, 2017-2018, 2019-2020 and 2021. We screened the resulting lists of citations to exclude reviews and non-empirical work, studies that reported impacts solely on the physical environment (e.g., land surface temperature, air pollution levels), and studies reporting purely qualitative measures. We selected top-cited papers as well as a random selection of papers within each time period, yielding a total of 125 studies. We carefully reviewed the full text of the sampled articles. For each study, we recorded the number of citations according to the WoS database, the location (nation) of the study population, the sample size, the methodology employed, the kinds or dimensions of nature to which subjects were exposed, and the outcomes assessed. To ensure inter-reviewer consistency, each paper was independently scored by at least two people, and any discrepancies were resolved.