An expanding and shifting focus in recent environmental health literature: a quantitative bibliometric study

Abstract

This special report characterizes the patterns of environmental health literature from 1993 to 2012 by using bibliometric techniques based on databases of the Science Citation Index and the Social Science Citation Index. "Research article" was the most widely used document type, accounting for 71.7% of the total records (5,053), and 94.9% of these articles were published in English. The number of environmental health publications is growing along with an increasing level of communication. The U.S. was the largest contributing country with the highest h-index (85) and the most publications (1,854), followed by the UK and Canada. Environmental Health Perspectives and the Journal of Environmental Health were the top two most productive journals. The most cited article in each main research area is also listed. The authors' study not only identifies global characteristics in environmental health research, but also influences researchers' selection of future studies and publications.