Authorship Pattern and Degree of Collaboration in Marine Pollution Research

Abstract

Marine pollution has been an ever-present problem since the advent of large-scale agricultural activity and industrialization. However, significant laws and regulations at an international level to tackle the problem came only in the mid-20th century. During United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea in the early 1950s, the various stakeholders came together to deliberate and formulate laws pertaining to marine pollution. Until the mid-20th century, the majority of the scientists maintained that oceans were vast enough to be able to dilute the amount of pollution being drained into them, thus considering pollution harmless to the marine life. The study examines the global output of marine pollution literature during 1994–2018 reflected in Web of Science database. The study reveals that, out of total 1412 papers, the largest number of publications was 112 (7.93%) are in the year 2018. The growth rate increased from 16 publications in 1994 to 112 (2018). The average collaborative index 4.48 was counted between 1994 and 2018. The average value of collaboration coefficient for marine pollution is 0.61. The degree of collaboration in the marine pollution literature is 0.86, which clearly indicates the dominance of multiple authors. Among the Prolific authors, Bellas, J. is the top ranker who has contributed 22 articles. In geographical distribution of publications, the largest number of contributions was from England with 560 (39.66%). India placed sixth with 23 (1.63%).