Worldwide rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) research: A bibliometric analysis during 2011–2021

Abstract

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) is the world's second produced oilseed and accounts for nearly 12% of world major vegetable oil production. For the last 10 years, the production, planting area, and yield of rapeseed have been stable, with improvement of seed quality and especially seed oil content. This paper presented the worldwide rapeseed research by using the bibliometric analysis of papers published during the period 2011–2021. In total, 7617 articles and reviews were included in this analysis. Our results showed that the global publication on rapeseed increased substantially in the past 11 years, and the number of publications of China grew significantly in particular. China was the largest contributor to rapeseed research with higher H-index value and number of citations compared to the other countries. China also had the largest number of leading universities and institutions, of which Huazhong Agricultural University was the most productive. The scientific mapping including co-authorship network of countries/regions and authors, and co-occurrence network of author keywords were analyzed using VOSviewer software. The most common rapeseed research topics included oil, rapeseed meal, yield, biodiesel, fatty acids, salt stress, and proteins, while the current research focused on topics such as: abiotic stress, evolution, expression analysis, phylogenetic analysis, heterosis, polyploidy, and transcriptomics. This paper depicts the knowledge structure of current global rapeseed research that may help direct the future studies for relevant researchers.