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Research progress of heavy metals in desert—visual analysis based on CiteSpace

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Abstract

In this paper, Web of Science (a database) is used to retrieve related literature in the field of heavy metal pollution in desert. CiteSpace is used to make a quantitative and qualitative evaluation on the literature in the field on the basis of a brief analysis on the research status, research focus, and evolution process in the field. Through CiteSpace visual analysis, a comparative analysis is given on related literature in terms of annual number of published papers, author groups, and their countries and regions, journals, publishing institutions, highly cited papers, research focuses, and burst terms, so as to explore the research status and future development trend of the field on a global scale. The results are shown as follows: (1) The literature in the field was originally published in 2000; the number of published papers increased steadily. The literature was mostly published on high-quality journals, the USA topped in terms of the number of published papers, and the research results achieved by developed countries had a greater influence. Chinese Acad Sci topped with the highest centrality and most published papers, which have made outstanding contributions to the field and occupy a leading position in the field. However, the fact is that there lacks communication and cooperation among research institutions. The most influential journal is Science of the Total Environment. (2) The hot research words in the field are as follows: heavy metal, soil, pollution, lead, desert, cadmium, and microelement. (3) In the field, burst terms have transformed from atmospheric deposition, biomonitoring, and phytoremediation to trace element, stream sediment, street dust, and water quality, and finally transformed to river and sediment. New words keep emerging in the research, and more and more attention is paid to the issue of heavy metal pollution in river sediment, which will be a future research hotspot in the field.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41871008) and by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M592742).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Tourism, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710119, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiping Xu, Tianjie Shao & Shengli Li

  2. International Joint Research Centre of Shaanxi Province for Pollutants Exposure and Eco-Environment Health, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710119, People’s Republic of China

    Tianjie Shao

  3. Planetary Aeolian Research Institute, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710119, People’s Republic of China

    Tianjie Shao & Zhibao Dong

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  1. Zhiping Xu
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  2. Tianjie Shao
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. The knowledge framing and funding were done by Tianjie Shao and Zhibao Dong; the ideas for the study were provided by Shengli Li; and the writing and preparation of the article were done by Zhiping Xu and Tianjie Shao. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tianjie Shao.

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Xu, Z., Shao, T., Dong, Z. et al. Research progress of heavy metals in desert—visual analysis based on CiteSpace. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 43648–43661 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20216-y

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