Trends in Soil Science over the Past Three Decades (1992–2022) Based on the Scientometric Analysis of 39 Soil Science Journals

Lang Jia, Wenjuan Wang, Francis Zvomuya and Hailong He ()
Additional contact information
Lang Jia: College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Xianyang 712100, China
Wenjuan Wang: College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Xianyang 712100, China
Francis Zvomuya: Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
Hailong He: College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, Xianyang 712100, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-32

Abstract: As one of the basic disciplines of agricultural, natural resource, and environmental science, soil science has played a critical role in global food security and socio-economic and ecological sustainability. The number of soil science journals and publications has increased remarkably with the development of soil science. However, there is a lack of systematic and comprehensive studies on the developmental trends of soil science based on journals and publications. In this study, 39 journals included under the soil science category in the 2022 Journal Citation Reports, and 112,911 publications in these journals from 1992 to 2022 were subjected to scientometric/bibliometric analysis to determine trends in publication, journal metrics, co-authorship, and research topics, in addition to general journal information. The results show that soil science ushered in a renaissance period with the number of publications, citations, impact factors, and CiteScore demonstrating an increasing trend. America and the Chinese Academy of Sciences had the most publications and citations. The most productive author published more than 400 articles. Soil science research focused mostly on its fundamental impact on the ecological environment based on the strongest citation bursts analysis of keywords. The analysis indicated that open access has increased in popularity. Current soil science journals still face a few common challenges, including an urgent need for a fairer evaluation mechanism on journal quality compared to the traditional use of single metrics as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the whole editorial process. Artificial intelligence may bring new tools and more changes to the development of soil science. This study will help soil science researchers to better understand the development status and future trends of soil science. It will also guide authors in journal selection.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; CiteScore; journal impact factor; open access; publications (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/3/445/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/3/445/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:3:p:445-:d:1353902

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().