Abstract:
Eriocheir sinensis has been one of the most popular crabs in recent years, due mainly to its high economic and nutritional value. A variety of studies has been focused on this field. However, it is still lacking on the systematic bibliometrics and knowledge graph, thereby quickly grasping the trends of research. In this work, scientometrics was applied to determine the advances and trends in the research, particularly for the literature analysis. In data acquisition, the Web of Science (WoS) and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases were selected as the search database, according to the commonly-used Science Citation Index Expansion (SCI-Expanded), and the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) in the WoS, and the Science Citation Index (SCI), Engineering Index (EI), Peking University core, Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), and Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) index in the CNKI, where the search subject was set as "Mitten crab" or "Eriocheir sinensis" or " River crab" or "Chinese mitten crab" or "Hairy crab", and the time span was set from 1991 to 2020. Finally, 2 541 search records were obtained in the WoS and 3 035 search records in the CNKI, where the search date was February 24, 2020. The results were obtained as follows. 1) Some indicators were determined (Records (Recs), Total Local Citation Score (TLCS), Total Global Citation Score (TGCS), and Average Total Local Citation Score (AVG-TLCS)) in the scientometrics, the annual output of publications, and the active countries or institutions in this field. It was found that there was an ever-increasing trend in the number of publications in the field of Eriocheir sinensis, indicating an active research field. The most active countries included China, the United States, Brazil, and Australia. Most active institutions came from China, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai Ocean University, and Nanjing Normal University. 2) The research hotspots and frontiers of the field were further analyzed using the networks of co-word, co-citation, co-author, and journal double-image overlay, as well as the timeline map. There were many studies on bioinformatics (such as gene expression, and immune response), biochemistry (such as growth performance, and nutrient composition), and ecological breeding (such as artificial seedling, pest control, and breeding mode). The classic cited references were mainly distributed in six fields, including immunology and microbiology, bioinformatics and natural biotechnology, food chemistry and aquaculture, biochemistry and biology, aquatic biology and ecology, as well as nucleic acid and marine science. In addition, three main disciplines (biology, molecular, and genetics) were greatly contributed to the citations of a large number of research articles. The research topics related to “transcriptome analysis”, “nutrition quality”, “ecological farming”, “larval development”, and “salinity” were cited the most over the past ten years, indicating the research hotspots in the Eriocheir sinensis field. 3) The future research was predicted on the nutritional quality, ecological breeding, pest control, as well as the quality and safety of aquatic products, according to the relevant literature over the past two years. The technical research was predicted on the intelligent breeding of Eriocheir sinensis, as the agricultural production was continued to become intelligent, efficient, and green in the future. For example, some new systems were gradually established, such as healthy farming, ecological recycling farming, and smart fishery. However, the knowledge map of scientometrics cannot reflect a large amount of content about this aspect, due to the relatively few articles or citations on agricultural informatization, particularly for the lack of practical applications of partial engineering research. In general, this finding can provide a strong reference for a comprehensive understanding of the current overall status in the research field of Eriocheir sinensis. Some suggestions can also be offered for the development trend in the future research.