SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF WORLDWIDE RESEARCH ON AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATES IN THE WEB OF SCIENCE DATABASE BETWEEN 1947 AND 2022

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze world trends in studies related to aquatic macroinvertebrates through the instruments of Scientometrics. The scientometric study was conducted on the Web of Science portal, with access to the full content, using the Boolean search with the following word combinations: “aquatic macroinvertebrates” OR “aquatic macroinvertebrate” OR “aquatic insects” OR “aquatic insect” OR “benthic macroinvertebrates” OR “benthic macroinvertebrate” OR “benthic community” OR “benthic communities”. The search resulted in n=17,997 scientific works, whose theme was related to the study of aquatic macroinvertebrates, in a time frame of 75 years. It was found that the scientific production related to aquatic macroinvertebrates increased over the years 1947 to 2022, with a positive correlation between the number of studies and the year of publication (R=0.84). The analysis identified publications in 182 countries, with 58.89% of the studies being carried out in the United States of America (USA), Canada, Brazil, Germany and Spain. Research has concentrated mainly in the area of Environmental Sciences Ecology. It was possible to conclude that there is a tendency for the continuity and increase of scientific production related to aquatic macroinvertebrates at a global level, which the countries, researchers and institutions that most publish are those that the incentive and cooperation networks between authors are stronger.