Bibliometric study of seafood quality literature

Abstract

This study investigates characteristics of seafood quality literature through application of bibliometric techniques. No previous studies that examined this field of science. The objectives are to examine seafood literature’s growth, document types, place/language of publishing, and author productivity patterns (analysed using Lotka’s law). A total of 2267 records were retrieved (up to 11 May 2016) from Web of Science and Scopus. Literature grew exponentially from 2000 to 2013 following the development of this field. Values obtained were c = 1.038, g = 1.118 and R2 = 0.946. Annual growth rate was 11.8%. The bibliography duplicates every 6.2 years. The most common publications were journal articles (64%), as expected. Per country, the U.S.A. made most major contributions, and English was the most-used language. A total of 5,583 authors, including co-authors, were retrieved; every paper’s author was given one credit to measure productivity. The majority (75%; 4175 authors) contributed only one article. These data do not fit Lotka’s law.