Sediment organic carbon and heavy metals: A bibliometric analysis

Bibliometric analysis is an important tool for the assessment of research trends on a topic of interest. With the rising demand for research on sediments, the current work is aimed to evaluate the number of publications, major countries involved, and major thrust areas of research using the search keywords "sediment organic carbon" and "sediment heavy metals." The bibliometric recovery of 1367 publications was done from the Scopus database during the study period of 23 years, that is, from 2000 to 2022 (till August) and the analyses were performed using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software. The result showed a greater number of publications on sediment organic carbon than the heavy metals. Research articles were the most preferred publication type as compared to book chapters, conference proceedings, review articles, and so on. No particular journal was found to have a significant impact on the topic of research, but Chemosphere and Marine Pollution Bulletin showcased the highest impact on publication with an H-index score of 36 each. While, China dominated the research on the concerned topic followed by India and the United States, a low level of inter-country collaboration was however detected in the analysis suggesting a regional influence on sediment-related topics. "Risk assessment," "Geo-accumulation index," and "Potential ecological risk" were the major focal areas that were associated with the assessment of sediment quality and heavy metal accumulation. It can be concluded that sediment related research has been regionally focused. More inter-country collaborations can aid in trans-disciplinary research related to sediments in the future.