Scientific knowledge on marine beach litter: A bibliometric analysis

Litter reduction in the coastal and marine environment represents a major challenge but must be prioritized to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the goods and services that humans derive from seas and oceans. This paper reviews the available global scientific literature focusing on marine beach litter and tracks its evolution and trends by combining social network analysis and bibliometrics. The relationships and co-occurrences among authors, countries and keywords retrieved from the Scopus abstract and citation database are presented. A total of 1765 publications are analysed: the majority being journal articles. Results reveal the notable worldwide increase in scientific interest in beach litter in the last decade, as well as its multidisciplinary perspectives. This information could be beneficial for the processes that support the improvement of international efforts for beach litter monitoring, removal, and management activities.