{"title":"Bibliometric analysis of microplastics research: Advances and future directions (2020–2024)","authors":"Zhilin Xing , Wenting Fu , Liangjie Li , Shan Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.csr.2024.105371","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microplastics are a critical environmental concern due to their pervasive distribution and hazards. This study used Citespace software for a bibliometric analysis of microplastics research from 2020 to 2024, based on Web of Science papers. It covered sources, distribution, ecotoxicity, human health impacts, and mitigation measures. Findings showed a rapid increase in the number of related publications, with research focus gradually becoming more specialized, including advances in specific areas such as pollution status, ecotoxicology, detection technologies, and pollution control methods. Research focused on high plastic consumption regions like Europe, North America, and Asia, using innovative methods like high-throughput sequencing and nanotechnology. Keywords clustering identified primary research hotspots: microplastic pollution, ecotoxicity, pollution control, and human health impacts. Despite progress, challenges such as incomplete detection methods, the need for better risk assessment models, and improved pollution control technologies remain. This study offers insights and future research directions for microplastics pollution prevention and environmental protection.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50618,"journal":{"name":"Continental Shelf Research","volume":"285 ","pages":"Article 105371"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Continental Shelf Research","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278434324002012","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"OCEANOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Microplastics are a critical environmental concern due to their pervasive distribution and hazards. This study used Citespace software for a bibliometric analysis of microplastics research from 2020 to 2024, based on Web of Science papers. It covered sources, distribution, ecotoxicity, human health impacts, and mitigation measures. Findings showed a rapid increase in the number of related publications, with research focus gradually becoming more specialized, including advances in specific areas such as pollution status, ecotoxicology, detection technologies, and pollution control methods. Research focused on high plastic consumption regions like Europe, North America, and Asia, using innovative methods like high-throughput sequencing and nanotechnology. Keywords clustering identified primary research hotspots: microplastic pollution, ecotoxicity, pollution control, and human health impacts. Despite progress, challenges such as incomplete detection methods, the need for better risk assessment models, and improved pollution control technologies remain. This study offers insights and future research directions for microplastics pollution prevention and environmental protection.
期刊介绍:
Continental Shelf Research publishes articles dealing with the biological, chemical, geological and physical oceanography of the shallow marine environment, from coastal and estuarine waters out to the shelf break. The continental shelf is a critical environment within the land-ocean continuum, and many processes, functions and problems in the continental shelf are driven by terrestrial inputs transported through the rivers and estuaries to the coastal and continental shelf areas. Manuscripts that deal with these topics must make a clear link to the continental shelf. Examples of research areas include:
Physical sedimentology and geomorphology
Geochemistry of the coastal ocean (inorganic and organic)
Marine environment and anthropogenic effects
Interaction of physical dynamics with natural and manmade shoreline features
Benthic, phytoplankton and zooplankton ecology
Coastal water and sediment quality, and ecosystem health
Benthic-pelagic coupling (physical and biogeochemical)
Interactions between physical dynamics (waves, currents, mixing, etc.) and biogeochemical cycles
Estuarine, coastal and shelf sea modelling and process studies.