The Entire 80-year Research History of Sichuan Snub-nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana): A Citespce-based Bibliometric Study

Abstract

The Sichuan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) is a flagship species that has received worldwide attention, and its study is of great importance. In this paper, we analyzed the entire 80 years of research on Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys worldwide with the web of science database as the basic data source and the visualization software CiteSpace to summarize the status of Sichuan snub-nosed monkey research. The study shows that: 1. Throughout the 80 years of Sichuan snub-nosed monkey research, it can be summarized into three developmental stages. During the 57 years from 1942 to 1998, which was the beginning stage of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys; while during the 8 years from 1999 to 2006, which was the development stage of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys; from 2007 to the present, which was the peak stage of Sichuan snub-nosed monkey’s research. 2. Investigating the countries/regions, institutions, authors, and core journals of Sichuan snub-nosed monkey research throughout the past 80 years, we found that the research on Sichuan snub-nosed monkey, as an endemic species in China, is still dominated by Chinese research units and personnel, and the research units and researchers from various countries or regions are very close in their research relationships, and the papers published by these researchers are also concentrated in some core journals. 3. Throughout its 80-year history, the subject of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys has undergone two explosive periods, after which it gradually reached saturation in the research field.