Worldwide Research Trends on Wheat and Barley: A Bibliometric Comparative Analysis

TLDR

Grain cereals such as wheat and barley are fundamental to global food security, providing essential nutrition for humans and animals worldwide. The study aimed to perform a bibliometric assessment of wheat and barley literature and patents using Scopus. The authors quantified annual publication counts, affiliations, scientific fields, journal outlets, document types, and languages, and clustered global keywords, distinguishing agronomy/genetics studies before and after 1999. The analysis uncovered distinct research trends between wheat and barley, prompting discussion of their underlying causes.

Abstract

Grain cereals such as wheat, barley, rice, and maize are the nutritional basis of humans and animals worldwide. Thus, these crop plants are essential in terms of global food security. We conducted a bibliometric assessment of scientific documents and patents related to wheat and barley through the Scopus database. The number of documents published per year, their affiliation and corresponding scientific areas, the publishing journals, document types and languages were metricized. The main keywords included in research publications concerning these crops were also analysed globally and clustered in thematic groups. In the case of keywords related to agronomy or genetics and molecular biology, we considered documents dated up to 1999, and from 2000 to 2018, separately. Comparison of the results obtained for wheat and barley revealed some remarkable different trends, for which the underlying reasons are further discussed.