Mapping of zebrafish research: a global outlook

Abstract

On the basis of analysis of 17,151 records on zebrafish identified from Zebrafish Information Network: the zebrafish model organism database and Web of Science, the research performance on this model organism has been evaluated. The earliest research work on zebrafish as reflected in the databases goes back to 1951. After a rather slow growth till the 1980s, research on zebrafish gained momentum in the 1990s. Analysis shows a rapid and consistent increase in the publication output with 226 publications in the year 1996, to 1929 publications in the year 2012. The prominent areas of zebrafish research, journals, and leading authors as reflected from the research output have been identified. USA is the most productive country with 8196 articles. The most frequently used keywords were also determined to gain insights about the research trends and some of the commonly used keywords other than zebrafish and Danio rerio are development, retina, and gene expression.

FIG. 1.

Annual growth trend of articles from the year 1951 to 2012 in zebrafish research.

FIG. 2.

Annual growth rates of articles in top five active subjects.