Scientific Footprint of South Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Research: A Scientometric Study between 2000 and 2017

Abstract

The multifaceted role of South Asian fisheries and aquaculture includes improving nutritional status, livelihood development and poverty alleviation of the associated nations. Application of scientific knowledge to utilize the full potential of South Asian fisheries and aquaculture has been discussed in many scientific forums, conferences and other published literature. Systematic analysis of this published literature may provide insight into the future research directions and identify the potential impact of South Asian fisheries and aquaculture research. In this context, a scientometric analysis in South Asian fisheries and aquaculture research was conducted for the period of 2000-2017 using Web of Science database™. Quantitative analysis of growth trends in publications, prolific authors, and journals, was carried out by using ‘R’ programming platform and package ‘bibliometrix’. The ‘VOSviewer’ software tool was employed to identify the key-word cooccurrence of published research articles in South Asian fisheries and aquaculture research. A total of 1755 articles related to South Asian fisheries and aquaculture were retrieved. Findings of the present study indicated that the, growth rate of articles in indexed publications is declining. India was the most influential country with the highest number of publications (1159). Indian Journal of Fisheries was the top journal with the highest article count (160). Keyword co-occurrence analysis has identified 10 distinct clusters related to the various themes of fisheries and aquaculture research. Fisheries management was the dominant research area with the highest number of associated keywords (52). Present study also suggested that strong country-level collaboration with developed countries, increase funding for research infrastructure and effective participation in international research arena are mandatory for more productive fisheries and aquaculture research output in South Asia.