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Research trend and dynamical development of focusing on the global critical metals: a bibliometric analysis during 1991–2020

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Abstract

Critical metals are indispensable to a world seeking to transition away from carbon. Yet their extraction, processing, and application leave an unsustainable global environment and climate change footprint. To capture the development dynamics and research emphases of critical metals throughout their life cycle, this paper adopts bibliometrics to analyze the various stages of global critical metal flow in multiple dimensions to reveal the hot issues and future strategic trends. The research results indicate that the number of research papers on critical metals is annually rising, with remarkably rapid growth after 2010. Judging from the number of articles published by the authors and the citations, among the authors, Kawakita, Poettgen, Anwander, Inoue, and Dongmei Cui have a significant influence on critical metal research fields. The institutions with the most research on critical metals are universities, not research institutes. In addition, the focus has extended from a single discipline to the interdisciplinary development of multiple disciplines. Analysis of keywords shows that “rare metals” and “precious metals” are the most popular metals among the researched metals. The researched buzzwords of critical metals are disappearing, convergent, and merging over time. The research has focused on the mining and the whole life cycle process of extraction, treatment, and application. Based on the above characteristics, this paper tries to understand the dynamic development and evolution of global critical metals from multiple dimensions, resorting to giving a reference for follow-up-related research scholars.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to anonymous peer reviewers for their helpful comments.

Funding

The study received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71991484; 71991480) and Key projects of Sichuan Mineral Resources Research Center (SCKCZY2021-ZD001). These funding bodies had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the writing of the manuscript.

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  1. College of Management Science, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China

    Wei Liu, Xin Li & Minxi Wang

  2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Litao Liu

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All authors contributed to the design of this research, as follows: Wei Liu: conceptualization, data curation, methodology, and writing of the original draft; Xin Li: conceptualization, formal analysis, and investigation; Minxi Wang: funding acquisition, supervision, writing, review, and editing; Litao Liu: funding acquisition and supervision.

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Liu, W., Li, X., Wang, M. et al. Research trend and dynamical development of focusing on the global critical metals: a bibliometric analysis during 1991–2020. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 26688–26705 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17816-5

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