A bibliometric analysis of scientific trends in phytoplankton research

¹ Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Science, 1, Xingyu Road, Liwan District, 510380 Guangzhou, China
² Université Toulouse, Lab Évolution & Diversité Biologique, UMR 5174, CNRS – Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, Cedex 4, France
³ Université Toulouse, Laboratoire d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement, UMR 5245, CNRS – Université Paul Sabatier, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, Cedex 4, France
⁴ Experimental Station for Scientific Observation on Fishery Resources and Environment in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Pearl River, 526100, Ministry of Agriculture, the People's Republic of China

^* Corresponding author: chaowang@prfri.ac.cn

Received: 14 May 2015
Accepted: 24 August 2015

Abstract

We summarize the scientific trends in phytoplankton studies between 1991 and 2013 based on bibliometric analysis. The annual publication output on phytoplankton demonstrated a rapid linear increasing tendency during the past two decades, and its contribution to total scientific articles remained below 10%. Under the context of fast scientific research development, the yearly numbers of dependent publications (in terms of multi-aquatic ecosystems and international collaborations) indicate a linear increasing trend. The variations of keywords associated with research regions are mainly contributed by geographic adjacent countries, which are also generally the top contributors. Various trends of all the keywords relating to research methods, research contents and environmental factors indicate that phytoplankton studies carried out on large scale and long term are showing a significantly ascending trend, while traditional and local scale studies are showing a descending trend.