Data-driven analysis of global research trends in bioacoustics and ecoacoustics from 1991 to 2018

Abstract Over the past two decades, bioacoustics and ecoacoustics have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention for their importance in investigating biology and ecology. Consequently, large volumes of academic articles have been published, which make it difficult to clearly understand current research trends. However, global research trends are important for grasping research direction and improving research quality. The recent development of scientometric data-driven analysis provides a novel way to reveal the diverse factors of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics. In this work, we discuss global research trends of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics in terms of annual research output, active journal, important author, and active institute and country using scientometric theory and metrics. The overall research output of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics is in an upward trend. For bioacoustics, Zootaxa is the representative journal in terms of number of publications and TLCS, while Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is in terms of TGCS. Klaus-Gerhard Heller, Jerome Sueur, and Almo Farina are representative authors in terms of number of publications, TLCS, and TGCS, respectively. USA is the leading country, followed by Germany. However, the leading institutes are from other countries rather than USA, which indicates the diversification of research institutions in USA. Univ Sao Paulo, Univ Paris 11, and Purdue Univ are representative institutions in terms of number of publications, TLCS, and TGCS. For ecoacoustics, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America is the most recognized journal in terms of number of publications, TLCS, and TGCS. Tomonari Akamatsu is the most productive author, while Almo Farina achieves the highest score in terms of TLCS and TGCS. USA is the leading country, and the second place is taken by UK, Italy, and UK in term of number of publications, TLCS, and TGCS. NOAA is the leading research institute in terms of number of publications. Univ Urbino is the leading university in terms of TLCS and TGCS. Co-word, co-author, and co-citation network analysis can successfully extract the research focus and provide the potential research directions. Compared to bioacoustics, ecoacoustics is a novel research field.