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Review
. 2025 Jan 27;15(3):368.
doi: 10.3390/ani15030368.

Trends in the Application of Citizen Science in Waterbird Conservation: A Bibliometric Analysis

Ruilin Wang  1   2 , Keming Ma  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Trends in the Application of Citizen Science in Waterbird Conservation: A Bibliometric Analysis

Ruilin Wang et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Waterbirds serve as indicator species for the quality and health of wetland ecosystems, and their conservation is of critical significance for global biodiversity. Citizen science has gradually emerged in recent years, playing an increasingly positive role in scientific research, particularly in ornithological studies. However, a systematic description of the application of citizen science data in waterbird conservation remains lacking. Bibliometrics is an effective method for analyzing the development of scientific disciplines, exploring trends, and examining thematic evolution. This paper utilizes bibliometric analysis of citation data from the Web of Science database, covering the period from 1970 to September 2024. The analysis reveals that this research field has undergone three distinct developmental phases, with a significant increase in annual publication volume during the third phase. Research focus has shifted from specific species and types of waterbirds to key hotspots and ecological phenomena. Future research hotspots are expected to include migratory birds, China, citizen science, and biodiversity. Influential papers within the field emphasize that the primary focus of waterbird conservation is habitat protection and the construction of habitat networks. As the discipline has developed, there is growing recognition that increasing public awareness of waterbird conservation, starting with student education, plays a crucial role in the accumulation of citizen science data and the advancement of waterbird conservation efforts.

Keywords: bibliometric; citizen science; trends; waterbird conservation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trends and phases of publications in this field.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Research Area Clustering Diagram. Nodes of the same color belong to the same cluster. Larger nodes indicate higher publication output within that research area. Connecting lines represent collaborative relationships between different research fields.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top 25 Keywords with the Strongest Citations Bursts. The red bars represent the duration of keywords burst periods, while the blue bars indicate the occurrence and persistence of keywords over time. The begin year serves as a crucial criterion for classification and is therefore highlighted in bold.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The co-citation network map of the literature. The map contains a total of 1674 nodes and 3685 edges. Each node represents a single paper, while the edges indicate co-citation relationships between the papers. The size of each node reflects the co-citation frequency of the corresponding paper.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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