From nanoplastic to microplastic: A bibliometric analysis on the presence of plastic particles in the environment

Highlights: • The number of microplastic publications increased 2323.1% in 2019 relative to 2009 • Top publishing countries were United States (18.5%) and China (17.5%) • There were 3820 microplastic publications related to the environment from 1971 to 2019 • Journal of Marine Pollution Bulletin published the most documents Identifying leading publications, authors, and countries in microplastic and nanoplastic research is beneficial for regulatory decisions, determining standardized research methodology, and solidifying definitions. Here, bibliometric analysis was performed using Web of Science's Core Collection to evaluate publication trends. A total of 3820 publications were downloaded and analyzed with the majority being journal articles. Since 2009, the number of publications has substantially increased. Results revealed that although the USA and China are the topmost publishing countries, two out of three of the top publishing institutions lie outside of these countries. The year with highest total number of citations was 2019 (42,000 citations), followed by 2018 (25,000 citations) and 2017 (13,000 citations). The journal Marine Pollution Bulletin published the highest number of records and included the top cited publications. Top publishing countries and the top cited publications and authors will likely pave the way for standardization in both microplastic and nanoplastic research.