Trends and Gaps on Philippine Scombrid Research: A bibliometric analysis

Philippine scombrids have been among the top priorities in fisheries research due primarily to their economic value worldwide. Assessment of the number of studies under general themes (diversity, ecology, taxonomy and systematics, diseases and parasites, and conservation) provides essential information to evaluate trends and gaps of research. This study presents a bibliometric evaluation of the temporal trends from 2000-2019 on Philippine scombrid research. Seven out of nine tuna species have SREA values equal to or higher than 1 with Thunnus albacares being the most researched tuna species. Twelve out of thirteen non-tuna species have SREA values less than one, thus indicating low research effort. It was apparent that there were significant differences in the number of studies in each thematic area except in chemical analysis and diseases and parasites between scombrid groups where there was low research effort observed. The research points at the uneven research distributions between scombrid groups in each thematic area. As locally published research are significantly behind foreign publications in terms of citation index, international collaborations by Filipino researchers have shown an increase research impact. Our study hopes to influence the local and international R&D agenda on Philippine scombrids and promote solidarity among nations towards its conservation and management.