Mapping wetland research in India in comparison with the rest of the world (1998-2021) - A meta-analysis

Abstract

Wetlands are crucial for maintaining the earth’s ecosystems, which control water supplies, modify local climates and provide humans with food. Nevertheless, wetlands confront substantial challenges attributed to human activities and natural alterations, encompassing issues like area contraction, functional deterioration, declining biodiversity, and numerous other concerns. The current study used the Web of Science (WoS) database to analyse the wetland research output during the last three decades spanning from 1988 to 2021. This analysis evaluated the scientific production of wetland research in India and the rest of the world using a total of 63671 articles. Analysis was also done on the global publication share, ranking, and progress in terms of research and bibliometric indices such as total citations, h-index, and average citations per paper. The USA accounted for 32.629% of the total publications, placing it topmost among the most productive nations in terms of overall publications. The network visualisation map showed that USA was the primary cooperating nation, but that there was very little cross-national cooperation. Since the WoS database contains only journals that are indexed by the WoS, the real number of publications is expected to be much larger than in the current study. This study also revealed the specific areas on wetland research where future directions for investigation can be decided by  experts in the field. However, wetlands face significant problems because of human activity and other natural changes, such as area contraction, functional deterioration, decline in biodiversity and much more. Keywords:Bibliometrics, H-index, Scientometrics, Web of Science, Wetland fisheries