Structuring Environmental Pollution Research: A Bibliometric Synthesis of Review Literature, Thematic Priorities, and Geographic Patterns (1985–2024)

Abstract

Environmental pollution research has expanded rapidly over recent decades, resulting in a fragmented body of scientific knowledge. This study provides a bibliometric synthesis of global pollution research between 1985 and 2024, based on 1,447 Scopus-indexed publications, treating review and bibliometric articles as analytical units to examine the structure, thematic organization, and geographic distribution of the field. Publication dynamics, citation patterns, collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence, and temporal metrics were combined to identify priorities and patterns. Results reveal an exponential increase in review-based scientific output since the mid-2010s, reflecting a growing demand for synthesis-oriented research. China, India, and Brazil together account for more than 40% of total publications, underscoring the growing role of emerging economies in pollution-related knowledge production. Bibliometric mapping identifies four dominant thematic clusters structured around metals, microplastics, wastewater and sewage, and development approaches, with trend trajectories revealing soil metal bioremediation, microplastic impacts, wastewater treatment pathways, and sustainability-oriented pollution research. Collaboration network analysis shows a highly fragmented structure dominated by small, theme-specific clusters, with a particularly prominent and persistent focus on Antarctic pollution syntheses, reflecting the role of polar environments as reference systems in global pollution research. A complementary narrative synthesis of recent review literature (2020–2024) further identifies greenhouse gases and organic compounds as recurrent thematic domains in review literature, alongside a growing emphasis on integrative, multidisciplinary syntheses across environmental compartments and scales. Overall, this study maps the evolving structure of environmental pollution research, indicating dominant thematic priorities, geographic asymmetries, and the growing role of integrative, and cross-disciplinary synthesis.

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