Bibliometric analysis of scientific research on grapevine viruses

Abstract：【Objective】This paper aimed to help researchers understand the global progress of studies on grapevine viruses, predict development trends, and develop a research focus in the field.【Methods】The core collection of web of science (WOS) was selected and the titles including the keywords of (“vitis Linn”OR“vitaceae vitis”OR vitides OR grapevine OR“vitis vinifera Linn”OR grape OR raisin OR tempranillo) AND (virus OR viruses) were searched for in years 2002—2019; and 2002 was the earliest year when WOS started to collect articles on grapevine virus. In the database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), searches were conducted by“cross- database search (13)”; the keywords used as index were“grapevine”and“virus”, and the time period was chosen as years“1975—2019”. The year of 1975 was the earliest year when CNKI collected articles about grapevine virus. Statistical analysis was performed for the collected data using Microsoft Excel, in which repeated and false-related papers were first removed from the collected data, and the parameters of authors, institutes, publication amount, and source countries were analyzed, mainly for the top ten ones.【Results】In WOS, 718 core papers were retrieved from 114 publications and they referred to 1 505 authors from 545 institutions in 57 countries. So far, the largest amount of publication was seen in 2016, and Fuchs Marc was included in most related papers. The University of California (Davis) was the institution with the largest amount of publication in the research field, as the USA was the country. Phytopathology was the journal with the largest amount of the papers. In China the largest amount of publication was seen in years 2016 and2018, and DONG Yafeng, ZHANG Zunping and FAN Xudong were the authors with the most publications. The Institute of Pomology of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences was the institution with the highest amount. In CNKI, a total of 374 related papers were retrieved. The largest amount of papers was seen in the year 2005, from the author of DONG Yafeng, and the Institute of Pomology of CAAS. Most papers were published on the Journal of Sino-Overseas Grapevine & Wine.【Discussion】According to the statistical analysis of the publications on grapevine viruses research, a worldwide dramatic climbing was observed in the field, indicating that more and more attention has been paid to the related study. In China, the total publication amount was 410 currently, out of which 374 was recorded in Chinese and 36 in English. The first paper in Chinese, which was originally translated by REN Linhan and ZHANG Qi from an English paper, entitled“The method of virus- free grape production”, was published on the Journal of Agricultural Research in the year 1975. The first English paper of“Partial molecular characterization of a Chinese isolate of Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 2 and production of antisera to recombinant viral proteins”on the Journal of Plant Pathology was composed by XU Zhangyi in 2006. From 1976 to 1980, no related literature was published on any publications, which was probably due to a historical reason. Based on the analytical results the authors with large publication amount were DONG Yafeng, FAN Xudong, ZHANG Zunping, REN Fang, ZHOU Jun, and HU Guojun, and they all worked in the Institute of Pomology of CAAS. In addition, HONG Ni and WANG Guoping at Huazhong Agricultural University were top authors in the field as well. They had large amount of papers in Chinese as well as in English, which may suggest that globalization of grapevine viruses research in China promoted well, which would benefit the multinational cooperation in the field. The damage caused by grapevine viral diseases mainly included delayed maturity, yield reduction and quality decline. Now grapevine viruses were detected in more and more countries, such as the USA, Italy, France, and Spain that were main wine producing countries; and China, South Africa and Canada that consumed large amount of table grapes. So grapevine viruses research was conducted better in some institutions in these countries, e.g., University of California (Davis), Cornell University, Washington State University, Agricultural Research Service Institute of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA ARS), and University of California (Berkeley) in the USA, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNR and Universita degli studi di Bari aldo moro in Italy, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique INRA in France, Agricultural Research Council of South Africa and Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and Institute of pomology of CAAS, Huazhong Agricultural University, and Ningxia University in China. Based on the content of the top ten cited articles in a database, the current research focused mainly on the detection and identification of grapevine viruses, the improvement and development of detection technologies, production of virus- free seedlings, treatments for viral diseases, and the mechanism of viral pathogenesis. Researchers in the USA and Italy have conducted a lot of research on interaction between virus and host, and Chinese researchers paid much attention on the production of virus-free seedlings, and treatment for the viral diseases. Treatment for grapevine viral diseases, however, was known less for any of the countries above, and no viricide was available till now. Fast identification of grapevine viruses could help prevent the spread of viral diseases, a perfect detection method would be as sensitive and high-throughput as possible in the future. Understanding of viral pathogenesis mechanism is the basis of prevention and control of the diseases. However, less is known for grapevine viruses so far due to many facts, for example, woody plants are difficult to manipulate on. The promotion of virus-free seedlings is one of the most favorable measures for preventing and controlling viral diseases. In the future, cooperation among authors, institutions and countries should be encouraged to find out ef-fective means to treat grapevine virus disease.【Conclusion】Based on the bibliometric analysis, it was found that the research on grapevine virus was increasing year by year. A lot of researchers from institutes focused on agriculture and forestry were mainly involved in. The amount of publication was large, and the countries included in the related research were widely distributed worldwide. Currently, the research interest in grapevine viruses is mainly focused on diagnosis, improving detection techniques, producing virus-free seedlings, the treatment of the virus disease, and viral pathogenesis, among which production of virus-free seedlings, disease treatment and viral pathogenesis are hot topics in this area.