Worldwide earthworm research: a scientometric analysis, 2000-2015

To understand the history and research status of earthworm, earthworm research citation data was collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded during the period from 2000 to 2015. Next, HistCite was used to analyse the yearly output, country, institution, journal, citation impact and citation relationships in the field. Results indicated that the research of earthworm has increased during the studied 16-year period. The country with the highest research output was the USA, while the institution with the highest research output was the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The majority of articles and Total Location Citation Score (TLCS) values came from developed countries. Developed countries have more research advantages in this field than that of developing countries. The top three outputs journals were Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Pedobiologia and Applied Soil Ecology. The top 3 TLCS journals were the same as top outputs journals. Articles published with higher TLCS scores had a greater impact on the following research and played an important role in research development.