IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v105y2015i1d10.1007_s11192-015-1679-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trends and potential cautions in food web research from a bibliometric analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Tao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Griffith University)

  • Rongxiao Che

    (University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Griffith University)

  • Dekui He

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yunzhi Yan

    (Anhui Normal University)

  • Xiaoyun Sui

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yifeng Chen

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

Understanding food webs is important and useful for planning environmental conservation, management and restoration. However, research on food webs is not uniform globally; it tends to be concentrated in specific areas or ecosystem types, and would hinder our understanding of food webs and ecosystem processes. This study examined the trends in food web research over the past decades by analysing publication data from Web of Science; in particular, it focused on the ecosystem types studied, countries in which the studies were done, and which countries collaborated on the studies. A total of 20,239 publications were examined. The results showed that research on food webs has dramatically increased since the 1990s. Most publications related focused on aquatic ecosystems. North American and European countries contributed much more in terms of research productivity than those from Africa and South America. Collaboration among individual authors and countries has become increasingly intensive. The USA and Canada were consistently the top two productive countries, and had the most frequent collaborations. Our study indicates that food webs from ecosystems other than aquatic ones, such as terrestrial ecosystems, also require more attention in the future; in particular those that exist within countries from Africa and South America.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Tao & Rongxiao Che & Dekui He & Yunzhi Yan & Xiaoyun Sui & Yifeng Chen, 2015. "Trends and potential cautions in food web research from a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 435-447, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:105:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-015-1679-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-015-1679-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-015-1679-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-015-1679-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Owen L. Petchey & P. Timon McPhearson & Timothy M. Casey & Peter J. Morin, 1999. "Environmental warming alters food-web structure and ecosystem function," Nature, Nature, vol. 402(6757), pages 69-72, November.
    2. Hao Qiu & Yi-Feng Chen, 2009. "Bibliometric analysis of biological invasions research during the period of 1991 to 2007," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 81(3), pages 601-610, December.
    3. W. Glänzel & A. Schubert & H. -J. Czerwon, 1999. "A bibliometric analysis of international scientific cooperation of the European Union (1985–1995)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 45(2), pages 185-202, June.
    4. M. Jake Vander Zanden & John M. Casselman & Joseph B. Rasmussen, 1999. "Stable isotope evidence for the food web consequences of species invasions in lakes," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6752), pages 464-467, September.
    5. Ling-Li Li & Guohua Ding & Nan Feng & Ming-Huang Wang & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2009. "Global stem cell research trend: Bibliometric analysis as a tool for mapping of trends from 1991 to 2006," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(1), pages 39-58, July.
    6. David A. King, 2004. "The scientific impact of nations," Nature, Nature, vol. 430(6997), pages 311-316, July.
    7. Wang-Huu Hsieh & Wen-Ta Chiu & Yee-Shuan Lee & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2004. "Bibliometric analysis of Patent Ductus Arteriosus treatments," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(2), pages 105-215, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beibei Niu & Song Hong & Jiefei Yuan & Sha Peng & Zhen Wang & Xu Zhang, 2014. "Global trends in sediment-related research in earth science during 1992–2011: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(1), pages 511-529, January.
    2. Dragan Ivanović & Hui-Zhen Fu & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2015. "Publications from Serbia in the Science Citation Index Expanded: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 145-160, October.
    3. Barbosa, Fabiana G. & Schneck, Fabiana, 2015. "Characteristics of the top-cited papers in species distribution predictive models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 313(C), pages 77-83.
    4. Yuh-Shan Ho, 2013. "The top-cited research works in the Science Citation Index Expanded," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 1297-1312, March.
    5. Dalia El Khaled & Nuria Novas & Jose-Antonio Gazquez & Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro, 2018. "Dielectric and Bioimpedance Research Studies: A Scientometric Approach Using the Scopus Database," Publications, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Youliang Huang & Mingquan Zhou & Qingqiong Deng & Juan Zhang & Pengbo Zhou & XianGang Shang, 2015. "Bibliometric analysis for the literature of traditional Chinese medicine in PubMed," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 557-566, October.
    7. Hans Pohl, 2020. "Collaboration with countries with rapidly growing research: supporting proactive development of international research collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 287-307, January.
    8. Xiaoyun Sui & Yongxia Chen & Zhi Lu & Yifeng Chen, 2015. "A bibliometric analysis of research papers related to the Mekong River," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 419-434, October.
    9. Feroz Khan, M. & Panikkar, Preetha, 2009. "Assessment of impacts of invasive fishes on the food web structure and ecosystem properties of a tropical reservoir in India," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(18), pages 2281-2290.
    10. Bárbara S. Lancho-Barrantes & Vicente P. Guerrero-Bote & Félix Moya-Anegón, 2013. "Citation increments between collaborating countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 817-831, March.
    11. Villanueva, Maria Concepcion S. & Isumbisho, Mwapu & Kaningini, Boniface & Moreau, Jacques & Micha, Jean-Claude, 2008. "Modeling trophic interactions in Lake Kivu: What roles do exotics play?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 422-438.
    12. I. Jarić & J. Gessner, 2012. "Analysis of publications on sturgeon research between 1996 and 2010," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 715-735, February.
    13. Hui-Zhen Fu & Kun-Yang Chuang & Ming-Huang Wang & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2011. "Characteristics of research in China assessed with Essential Science Indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(3), pages 841-862, September.
    14. Marian-Gabriel Hâncean & Matjaž Perc & Lazăr Vlăsceanu, 2014. "Fragmented Romanian Sociology: Growth and Structure of the Collaboration Network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-9, November.
    15. Goodall, Amanda H., 2009. "Highly cited leaders and the performance of research universities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1079-1092, September.
    16. Domingo Docampo & Lawrence Cram, 2019. "Highly cited researchers: a moving target," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 1011-1025, March.
    17. Amanda H Goodall, 2005. "Should Research Universities be Led by Top Researchers? Part 1: Are they?," HEW 0506003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Lin Zhang & Ronald Rousseau & Wolfgang Glänzel, 2016. "Diversity of references as an indicator of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Taking similarity between subject fields into account," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(5), pages 1257-1265, May.
    19. Ricardo Arencibia-Jorge & Felix Moya-Anegón, 2010. "Challenges in the study of Cuban scientific output," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(3), pages 723-737, June.
    20. Pentti Riikonen & Mauno Vihinen, 2008. "National research contributions: A case study on Finnish biomedical research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 77(2), pages 207-222, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:105:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-015-1679-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.