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Comment
. 2023 Jan 4:10:1069172.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1069172. eCollection 2022.

Global research into the relationship between electronic waste and health over the last 10 years: A scientometric analysis

Huiting Tian  1 , Lingzhi Chen  1 , Jinyao Wu  1 , Daitian Zheng  1 , Qiuping Yang  1 , Zeqi Ji  1 , Jiehui Cai  1 , Yexi Chen  1 , Zhiyang Li  1
Affiliations
Comment

Global research into the relationship between electronic waste and health over the last 10 years: A scientometric analysis

Huiting Tian et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: The aims of this research were to conduct the first holistic and deep scientometric analysis of electronic waste and health and provide with the prediction of research trends and hot topics.

Method: A comprehensive literature search was conducted via the Web of Science Core collection databases on 26 August 2022 to identify all articles related to electronic waste and health. A total of 652 records have been extracted from the Web of Science after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and were analyzed using bibliometrix software of R-package, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace, visualized by tables and diagrams.

Result: The number of publications and total citations had shown a general growth trend from 2012 to 2021, with an average annual growth rate of 23.74%. Mainland China was the significant nation with the greatest number of publications, citations, and international links. The journal publishing the most was "Science of the Total Environment" (n = 56). Huo X and Hu XJ were the top two author contributing to this field with the highest h-index (23). Over time, the focus in this field shifted to exposure to heavy metal, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated biphenyl ethers, and poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances from electronic waste, and managements, such as hydrometallurgy.

Discussion: By this scientometric analysis, we found that the most active country, journal, organization and author contributing to this filed, as well as high impact documents and references and research hotspots. Also, we found that the hotspots might be exposure to toxic substances from electronic waste procession, its impact on human health and relevant managements. And evironmentally friendly materials to replace heavy metal mate rials, and environmentally friendly and effective recycling methods of electronic waste need to be further studied.

Keywords: VOSviewer; bibliometrix; electronic waste (e-waste); environment; health; scientometric.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data collection and the analysis flowchart.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Annual scientific production during the last 10 years in this field; (B) Total article citations per year during the last 10 years in this field.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Country or region scientific production world map; (B) country or region collaboration world map (blue color: country or region with publications; gray color: country or region without publications; the intensity: the publications' number).
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Co-authorship network map between countries with over five publications; (B) Co-authorship overlay map between countries with over five publications (the blue color stands for earlier years; the yellow color stands for more recent years).
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A) Co-authorship network map for organizations with over five publications; (B) Co-authorship overlay map for organizations with over five publications.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Citation analysis of documents network map with over 50 citations.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(A) Co-citation network map between references with over 20 citations; (B) Co-citation density map between references with over 20 citations.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Top authors' production over time.
Figure 9
Figure 9
(A) Keywords network map with over five occurrences; (B) Keywords overlay map with over five occurrences; (C) Keywords density map with over five occurrences.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Map showing the trending topics across years.
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