Trend and impact of plant cell publications: a bibliometric analysis of global research output from 1992 to 2016

The objective of this writing was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of all plant cell publications during the period from 1992 to 2016 by using the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science database. Basic analysis includes document types, languages, journals, Web of Science categories, distribution by countries and institutes. Indicators such as total, independent, collaborative, first author, corresponding author, and single author publications were applied to compare publication performances by specific countries and institutions of the top ranking. The G7 dominated most of the high impact publications in plant cell research. The high-ranked contributing institutions were non-universities from France, China, Russia, Spain, and USA. University of Tokyo in Japan was the most productive university single out on the top. Plant cell articles were published mainly in Web of Science of plant sciences. Plant Physiology , Plant Journal , and Plant Cell  were the top three productive journals on this subject. In addition, top cited and the high impact articles in recent years were also compared. Distributions of words in title, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus  in different periods were used for searching research focuses.