A bibliometric analysis of Soil remediation Based on Massive research literature data During 1988-2018

Abstract

Soil is an important part of the ecosystem with significant roles that help human population sustain. Research on prevention and remediation of soil pollution has been carried out when 1985. This study analyzed the 1988-2018 soil remediation dataset in the Web of Science database by bibliometric methods to illustrate the current research trends and hot topics of quantitative analysis and soil remediation in the world. To further identify the major soil contamination topics, we employed social network analysis. The results indicate that the field of soil remediation has entered a stage of rapid progress. The United States has a strong overall strength with the largest number of published articles and larger impact. China ranks second. We identified Journal of hazardous materials as the most influential journal and Chinese academy of sciences as the most influential institution. Academic cooperation showed an increasing trend at the author, institutional, and national levels with an average level of cooperation of 3.57, 1.66, and 1.16, respectively. However, the growth rate of cooperation at the national level is relatively low. In addition, the frequency and co-word analyses of keywords revealed the important research topics. \"heavy metals\", \"PAH\", \"bioremediation\", \"Phytoremediation\" and \"Electrokinetic remediation\" were identified as the hot topics. The findings of this study will help researchers understand the status of soil remediation as well as provide guidance for future research.