A bibliometric analysis of leachate publications by ASEAN authors

Abstract

Leachates are the aqueous effluent produced from waste filtration of rainwater, biochemical activities in the waste cells, and the unavoidable water content of the waste itself. Leachate can travel into soil and subsoil, seriously affecting the land, surface water, and groundwater ecosystems. Leachates typically contain significant quantities of organic matter, ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N), toxic chemicals, and organic and inorganic chlorinated salts, which are detrimental to living and biodiversity. Based on the significant risk posed by leachate, many kinds of research have been conducted on these environmental concerns. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse and report leachate-related publications by ASEAN authors based on the data collected from the Scopus database. As of 24th April 2020, a total number of 1133 articles were retrieved and analysed. This study examined publication productivity by analysing descriptive publication patterns and visualising keywords co-occurrences. The results showed that there had been an increase in the literature on leachate growth rate from 1989 until 2020. However, the number of publications slightly dropped in 2011 and 2014. This study revealed the widespread scholarly communication techniques in leachate research, which will assist future researchers in identifying the fundamental parts of this body of knowledge. In conclusion, this study enables researchers to develop innovative solutions to the leachate environmental problem by assessing the bibliometric parameters that provide the study’s crucial and noteworthy findings.