Knowledge domain and emerging trends of agricultural waste management in the field of social science: A scientometric review

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted on agricultural waste management, especially review articles; however, there are few literature analyses from the scientometric and bibliometric perspective. This study is one of the first to offer insights into the research topics and trend evaluation in terms of agricultural waste management over time. Our main findings are as follows: For nearly half a century, the United States has maintained the leading position in research on agricultural waste management. Many core research institutions or scholars are also from the United States. There are four major areas in this field: the research on the low-carbon and energy utilization of agricultural waste, the influence of agricultural waste emissions, the material and energy flow of agricultural waste and the prevention and control of agricultural waste pollution. As time progresses and with the development of environment, economy and society, the popular research topics in different stages vary, but on the whole, the research on agricultural waste management has emerged in the early stage. With the change of global natural resource conditions and political and economic background, there are more space for the future. We believe that research on greenhouse gas emission reduction from agricultural waste management based on specific social policies is extremely urgent, and will be of great significance in reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emission.