Mao, N; Wang, MH; Ho, YS. 2010. A Bibliometric Study of the Trend in Articles Related to Risk Assessment Published in Science Citation Index. HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT 16 (4): 801-824

[Eugene Garfield]

Mao, N; Wang, MH; Ho, YS. 2010. A Bibliometric Study of the Trend in Articles 
Related to Risk Assessment Published in Science Citation Index. HUMAN AND 
ECOLOGICAL RISK ASSESSMENT 16 (4): 801-824.

Author Full Name(s): Mao, Ning; Wang, Ming-Hung; Ho, Yuh-Shan
Language: English
Document Type: Article

Author Keywords: risk assessment; SCI; scientometrics; trend; research 
hotspots; h-index; word cluster analysis

KeyWords Plus: RED BOOK; CANCER; SEDIMENTS; EXPOSURE; PLUS; 
CARCINOGENESIS; ENVIRONMENT; PUBLICATION; TOXICITY; DISKETTE

Abstract: In this study, a bibliometric method was used to evaluate the global 
scientific production of risk assessment research for the last 16 years and 
provide insights into the characteristics of the risk assessment research 
activities and tendencies that may exist in the papers. Data were obtained on 
the online version of SCI, Web of Science from 1992 to 2007. Two important 
respects of the paper characteristics were analyzed: (i) performance of 
publication and (ii) research tendency and hotspots. The main results were as 
follows: English-language articles took the majority of all the publications. 
Number of articles in this field increased from 1 in 1968 to 1037 in 2007. Human 
and Ecological Risk Assessment published the most papers in this field, taking 
3% of all. Research tendency was investigated by statistically analyzing the 
distribution of paper title, author keyword, and keyword plus. Furthermore, a 
new method named oword cluster analysiso was successfully applied to find the 
research hotspots of this field. Research hotspots of risk assessment mainly 
focused on three subject categories: environmental science, ecology, and 
epidemiology. This new bibliometric method can help relevant researchers 
realize the panorama of global risk assessment research, and establish the 
further research direction.

Addresses: [Ho, Yuh-Shan] Asia Univ, Trend Res Ctr, Taichung 41354, Taiwan; 
[Mao, Ning; Wang, Ming-Hung; Ho, Yuh-Shan] Peking Univ, Dept Environm Sci, 
Coll Environm Sci & Engn, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China

Reprint Address: Ho, YS, Asia Univ, Trend Res Ctr, Taichung 41354, Taiwan.
E-mail Address: ysho at asia.edu.tw
ISSN: 1080-7039
DOI: 10.1080/10807039.2010.501248
fulltext: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10807039.2010.501248