Abstract
This study explores a bibliometric approach to quantitatively assessing current research trends on solid waste, by using the related literature published between 1997 and 2011 in journals of all the subject categories of the Science Citation Index. The articles acquired from such literature were concentrated on the general analysis by publication type and language, characteristics of articles outputs, country, subject categories and journals, and the frequency of title-words and keywords used. Over the past 15 years, there had been a notable growth trend in publication outputs, along with more participation of countries/territories. The seven major industrialized countries (G7) published the majority of the world articles, while their article share was being replacing by other countries represented by BRIC countries. An analysis of the title-words, author keywords and keywords plus showed that municipal solid waste and sludge were the major research types of solid wastes and “anaerobic digestion”, “wastewater” and “heavy metals” were recent major topics of solid waste research. Meanwhile, the analysis indicated the analysis technologies, represented by solid-phase extraction and tandem mass-spectrometry, were more and more widely used for solid waste research. Besides, life cycle assessment and health risk assessment were the most two frequently environmental assessment tools used for solid waste research in the 15-year research period.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arena, U. (2012). Process and technological aspects of municipal solid waste gasification. A review. Waste Management, 32, 625–639.
Braun, T., Schubert, A. P., & Kostoff, R. N. (2000). Growth and trends of fullerene research as reflected in its journal literature. Chemical Reviews, 100(1), 23–37.
Buah, W. K., Cunliffe, A. M., & Williams, P. T. (2007). Characterization of products from the pyrolysis of municipal solid waste. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 85(5), 450–457.
Caresana, F., Comodi, G., Pelagalli, L., Pierpaoli, P., & Vagni, S. (2011). Energy production from landfill biogas: An Italian case. Biomass and Bioenergy, 35, 4331–4339.
Chan, J. K. Y., & Wong, M.H. (2012). A review of environmental fate, body burdens, and human health risk assessment of PCDD/Fs at two typical electronic waste recycling sites in China. Science of The Total Environment. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.07.098.
Cheng, H. F., Zhang, Y. G., Meng, A. H., & Li, Q. H. (2007). Municipal solid waste fueled power generation in China: A case study of waste-to-energy in Changchun City. Environmental Science and Technology, 41, 7509–7515.
Chuang, K. Y., Huang, Y. L., & Ho, Y. S. (2007). A bibliometric and citation analysis of stroke-related research in Taiwan. Scientometrics, 72(2), 201–212.
Cleary, J. (2009). Life cycle assessments of municipal solid waste management systems: A comparative analysis of selected peer-reviewed literature. Environment International, 35(8), 1256–1266.
Cui, J., & Zhang, L. (2008). Metallurgical recovery of metals from electronic waste: A review. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 158, 228–256.
Garfield, E. (1990). Keywords plus: ISIS breakthrough retrieval method. 1. Expanding your searching power on current-contents on diskette. Current Contents, 32, 5–9.
Gaur, A., Park, J. W., Maken, S., Song, H. J., & Park, J. J. (2010). Landfill gas (LFG) processing via adsorption and alkanolamine absorption. Fuel Processing Technology, 91, 635–640.
Halim, A. A., Aziz, H. A., Johari, M. A. M., & Ariffin, K. S. (2010). Comparison study of ammonia and COD adsorption on zeolite, activated carbon and composite materials in landfill leachate treatment. Desalination, 262, 31–35.
Hazra, T., & Goel, S. (2009). Solid waste management in Kolkata, India: Practices and challenges. Waste Management, 29, 470–478.
Huang, Y., & Zhao, X. (2008). Trends of DDT research during the period of 1991 to 2005. Scientometrics, 75(1), 111–122.
Kim, J. H., Lee, J. C., & Pak, D. (2011). Feasibility of producing ethanol from food waste. Waste Management, 31, 2121–2125.
Long, Y. Y., Shen, D. S., Wang, H. T., Lu, W. J., & Zhao, Y. (2011). Heavy metal source analysis in municipal solid waste (MSW): Case study on Cu and Zn. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 186, 1082–1087.
Mahmood, T., & Elliott, A. (2006). A review of secondary sludge reduction technologies for the pulp and paper industry. Water Research, 40, 2093–2112.
Ortega, L. M., Lebrun, R., Blais, J. F., & Hausler, R. (2007). Treatment of an acidic leachate containing metal ions by nanofiltration membranes. Separation and Purification Technology, 54, 306–314.
Pathak, A., Dastidar, M. G., & Sreekrishnan, T. R. (2009). Bioleaching of heavy metals from sewage sludge: A review. Journal of Environmental Management, 90, 2343–2353.
Renou, S., Givaudan, J. G., Poulain, S., Dirassouyan, F., & Moulin, P. (2008). Landfill leachate treatment: Review and opportunity. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 150, 468–493.
Saha, M., Eskicioglu, C., & Marin, J. (2011). Microwave, ultrasonic and chemo-mechanical pretreatments for enhancing methane potential of pulp mill wastewater treatment sludge. Bioresource Technology, 102, 7815–7826.
Suk, F. M., Lien, G. S., Yu, T. C., & Ho, Y. S. (2011). Global trends in Helicobacter pylori research from 1991 to 2008 analyzed with the Science citation index expanded. European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 23(4), 295–301.
Velghe, I., Carleer, R., Yperman, J., & Schreurs, S. (2011). Study of the pyrolysis of municipal solid waste for the production of valuable products. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 92(2), 366–375.
Wen, H., & Huang, Y. (2012). Trends and performance of oxidative stress research from 1991 to 2010. Scientometrics, 91, 51–63.
Yang, L. Y., Yue, T., Ding, J. L., & Han, T. (2012). A comparison of disciplinary structure in science between the G7 and the BRIC countries by bibliometric methods. Scientometrics, 93(2), 497–516.
Yuan, H., Wang, L., Su, F., & Hu, G. (2006). Urban solid waste management in Chongqing: Challenge and opportunities. Waste Management, 26, 1052–1062.
Zhang, L., & Jahng, D. (2012). Long-term anaerobic digestion of food waste stabilized by trace elements. Waste Management, 32, 1509–1515.
Zhang, W. W., Qian, W. H., & Ho, Y. S. (2009). A bibliometric analysis of research related to ocean circulation. Scientometrics, 80(2), 305–316.
Acknowledgments
The research reported here was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51278212) and the Eleventh Five-year National Technology Supporting Plan Program of China (No. 2006BAC06B04).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, L., Chen, Z., Liu, T. et al. Global trends of solid waste research from 1997 to 2011 by using bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 96, 133–146 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0911-6
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0911-6