A Decadal Bibliometric Analysis of Water Resources Research

An attempt has been made to do a bibliometric analysis of the Scopus dataset for the decade 2011–2020 on four important keywords- hydrology, water research, water management, and water quality that are frequently used in the field of water resources management. For this study, the Scopus dataset was scouted and analyzed with the help of Bibliometrix, which is a unique software developed in the statistical computing and graphic R language. The average number of citations per year per document for hydrology and water research was 3.902 and 3.424, respectively, which is lower than water management (5.304) and water quality (4.471). Similarly, the average citations per document were also quite low for hydrology and water research. The trend topics that have been addressed almost revolved around the keywords. However, the climate change components were also added more and more by the researchers during the second half of the decade. The thematic map contained basic themes, motor themes, niche themes, and emerging or declining themes. Hydrology, water management, and water quality keywords had all four themes; however, the water research keyword had only motor, and emerging or declining themes.