A quantitative analysis of Antarctic related articles in humanities and social sciences appearing in the world core journals

To demonstrate the importance and the actual research situation of Antarctic studies in the humanities and social sciences, we collected data from the SSCI and A&HCI covering a period of over 100 years and focused on the number of articles published each year, major journals, types of document, authors and their countries publishing the most articles, collaboration, the major research subjects covered, and citations. Comparisons were also made with the Arctic studies to show some similarities and differences. The results suggest that the research in the fields of humanities and social sciences has been in the long-run developing without interruption over 100 years. With regard to the number of articles in high-capacity journals, Geographical Journal performs best, followed by the Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen and Scottish Geographical Magazine. The documentation is rather scattered without a strong cohesion, while book review and article are the two most common types of document. There haven't many stable collaborated teams on Antarctic topics. Joyner, Savours, and Beck are the three authors having the highest number of publications. USA is the most active country while the most active research institute is University of Tasmania in Australia. The Antarctic expedition has been the main theme lasted for centuries. In addition, the research in the fields of humanities and social sciences has generated a lot of high-impact articles, among which the article entitled "Chemical concentrations of pollutant lead aerosols, terrestrial dusts and sea salts in Greenland and Antarctic snow strata" enjoys the highest citation counts.