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Title: Trends in literature on new oilseed crops and related species: Seeking evidence of increasing or waning interest

Author
item Cruz, von Mark
item Dierig, David

Submitted to: Industrial Crops and Products
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/29/2011
Publication Date: 1/1/2012
Citation: Cruz, V.V., Level, A.V., Dierig, D.A. 2012. Trends in literature on new oilseed crops and related species: Seeking evidence of increasing or waning interest. Industrial Crops and Products. 37:141-148.

Interpretive Summary: Little is known about the larger perspective of the types of research activities carried out on new oilseed crop species worldwide. It is important to know where deficiencies in research occur for policy makers to decide where funding for agriculture is needed. This study was conducted by analyzing bibliographic records and popular media for trends in the number of publications, distribution of author countries, contribution to different research areas, and publication impact. Results from looking at records spanning six decades showed an increasing interest in these new crop species and their relatives, their utility being frequent topics in popular media, and with considerable research activities in many countries outside the United States. This information will be useful to stakeholders of these oilseed crops as well as others interested in quantitative study of scientific publications.

Technical Abstract: Bibliographic records on eight new crop species Camelina, Crambe, Cuphea, Physaria, Limnanthes, Stokesia, Thlaspi, and Vernonia from Agricola, CAB Abstracts, Scopus, and Web of Science were analyzed for historical and recent trends in the areas of research, author distribution, and quantity and impact of publications. A total of 6786 non-redundant bibliographic records were curated and used in the analyses with about 59% of the records pertaining to the primary oilseed species - Camelina sativa, Crambe abyssinica, Cuphea viscossisima, Cuphea lanceolata, Limnanthes alba, Physaria fendleri, Stokesia laevis, Thlaspi arvense, Vernonia galamensis, and Vernonia anthelmintica. The highest number of records was found to be on Thlaspi while the least on Stokesia. Authors representing a total of 110 countries were determined to have worked in these new crops and their relative species during the past six decades with those from the United States contributing about 27% of the total number of publications. There was an increase of more than ten-fold in the number of publications on new crops and relatives from 1950 to 2010 and this was paralleled by a similar increase in articles in popular and news media. The h-index values, indicating the collective impact of publications by researchers in the crop groups, show an increasing trend until the year 2000 then followed by a decline. Similarly in recent times there are fewer papers in the areas of chemistry, agronomy and horticulture, while there is a substantial increase in publications dealing with genetics and plant biology.