Dataset for the review article "From plastic use in the construction and built environment to state-of-the-art circular economy solutions to combat microplastic pollution" This (ReadMe) file was created on 2025-12-24 by KATJA TURK. ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- Dataset description: The dataset supports the data presented in the article “From plastic use in the construction and built environment to state-of-the-art circular economy solutions to combat microplastic pollution.” It consists of a single Excel worksheet compiling data on the number of published studies related to microplastics in general and to microplastics originating from the building and construction sector to illustrate the evolution of research attention. Author/leading researcher details Name and surname: Katja Turk ORCID: / SICRIS ID: https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl/researcher/56879 Institution: Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute Address: Dimičeva ulica 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Institution: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology Address: Večna pot 113, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Email: katja.turk@zag.si Role in this dataset: A collection of raw data, organising dataset and preparing graphical representation. Information about the author(s) Name and surname: Gabriela Kalčikova ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8254-2975 SICRIS ID: https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl/researcher/41652 Institution: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology Address: Večna pot 113, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Institution: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology Address: Technická 2896/2, 61669 Brno, Czech Republic Email: Gabriela.Kalcikova@fkkt.uni-lj.si Name and surname: Anita Jemec Kokalj ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3143-4461 SICRIS ID: https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl/researcher/17710 Institution: University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Biology Address: Jamnikarjeva 101, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Email: anita.jemec@bf.uni-lj.si Name and surname: Branka Mušič ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3538-9373 SICRIS ID: https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/sl/researcher/18031 Institution: Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute Address: Dimičeva ulica 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Email: Branka.music@zag.si Date of data collection: 2025-02-17. Geographical location of data collection: Ljubljana, Slovenia Information on the funders/programmes/projects that made the data collection possible: This project was funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) by research programs P2-0273 and P1-0184, by project J1-50014 “MicroBIOplast” and the Young Researcher Program (grant no. 59559). ----------------------------- SHARING/ACCESSING INFORMATION ----------------------------- Data licences/restrictions: CC-BY Links to publications that cite or use the data: DOI: 10.1186/s12302-025-01228-0 ---------------------- VIEWING DATA AND FILES ---------------------- File list: - Review_number of studies.xlsx - Description: Counts of published studies extracted from the Web of Science database, used to quantify the number of studies related to microplastics in general and to microplastics originating from the building and construction sector. -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- Methods used to collect/obtain the data: The data collection methodology is described in the section “Microplastics research trends in the building and construction industry” of the article and is graphically presented in Figure 1. Data processing methods: The data were processed and organized within the provided Excel document, including filtering of relevant studies and calculation of final values used for graphical presentation. ------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION: Review_number of studies.xlsx ------------------------------------- The sheet contains data retrieved from the Web of Science database based on predefined keyword searches related to microplastics. The first table lists all records obtained from the initial search query. Following a manual screening of titles and abstracts, a second table includes only studies considered relevant to microplastics originating from the building and construction sector. Based on the filtered dataset, calculations were performed to derive the final values used for data aggregation and graphical representation of publication trends presented in the manuscript.