An international comparative study of rare earth research from the perspective of bibliometrics

Wen Xiao; Lei Zhou; Ping Yang; Na Yan; Chen Wei

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16075

An international comparative study of rare earth research from the perspective of bibliometrics

Heliyon. 2023 May 6;9(5):e16075. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16075. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Wen Xiao¹, Lei Zhou¹, Ping Yang¹, Na Yan¹, Chen Wei¹

Affiliation

¹ Beijing Institute of Science and Technology Information, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Rare earth refers to a type of strategic resource. Countries worldwide have invested considerable money in relevant research. This bibliometric study was to evaluate the global situation of published rare earth research to discover rare earth research strategies in a wide range of countries. In this study, 50,149 SCI papers related to rare earth were collected. In addition, we divided the above papers into 11 main research fields according to discipline and keyword clustering, and divided the above theoretical cultures into different industry fields according to the keywords of the above papers. After that, the research directions, research institutions, funding, and other aspects of rare earth research in numerous countries were compared. The result of this study suggests that China's rare earth research has been generally in the leading position worldwide, whereas there are still some problems in the discipline layout, strategic strategies, green development, and fund support. Other countries place a greater focus on areas regarding national security strategies (e.g., mineral exploration, smelting, and permanent magnetism).

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Development trend; International comparison; Policy recommendation; Rare earth.