A bibliometric analysis of research on Central Asia during 1990–2014

A bibliometric analysis was performed in this work to evaluate the research publications on Central Asia from 1990 to 2014 based on Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index databases. This study presented a comprehensive overview of the field from the aspects of major journals, subject categories, outstanding keywords, leading countries, institutions and authors, as well as the research collaborations. It was identified that a total of 11,025 papers were published in 2356 journals and there had been a steady development over the past 25 years for Central Asia research. Geosciences Multidisciplinary, Geochemistry and Geophysics, Paleontology, Environmental Sciences and Zoology were the most popular subject categories. Keywords analysis indicated that “Tien Shan”, “climate change”, “taxonomy”, “new taxa”, and “health care” were the topics that generated the most interest and concern. Besides, temporal evolution of keywords revealed the rapid growth of “Central Asia Orogenic Belt” and “Zircon UPb dating”. According to research forces analysis, USA and Russian Academy of Sciences came as the leading contributors and had the dominant position in collaboration networks. This paper was a new attempt to better the understanding of the progress in Central Asia research. The findings of this study would help researchers improve the performance.