A global bibliometric analysis of research on microplastics from 2004 to 2020

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) pollution has garnered significant interest as a serious environmental problem. To date, a large amount of research has been published on this topic. We analyzed the related studies to assess the global developments of MPs regarding the evolution, research trends, and hotspots by bibliometric. A total of 2,872 bibliographic records were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, and CiteSpace 5.4 was used for bibliometrics. The results visually displayed the contributing countries, institutions, authors, keywords, and potential research directions in the MPs fields. The scientific developments in this field began in 2004 and have accelerated considerably since 2012. China and the USA are the leading countries in MPs research. The research on MPs is multidisciplinary and involves Ecology, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Environmental Science, and Oceanography. Among these, Oceanography was the most connected with MPs and was the most well-developed. Overall, we mapped the development of MPs research and attempted a comprehensive discussion and understanding of scientific advances, as well as the progress made.