A data-driven analysis of global research trends on dirty-dozen persistent organic pollutants

The occurrence, distribution, and fate of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been extensively studied worldwide; however, the patterns and dynamics of scientific publications on POPs are still unclear. In this study, the research trends on dirty dozen POPs, which are identified under the Stockholm Convention (SC) for immediate action were investigated and evaluated in a broad context to obtain up-to-date information. For this purpose, bibliometric analysis was carried out between 1945 and 2021 using the Web of Science (WoS) database. A total of 197,029 publications were analyzed. "Environmental Sciences" was the most popular research category and the USA was the leading country in dirty dozen POPs studies. The research hotspots are related to the most used keywords such as "Polychlorinated Biphenyls", "Dioxin" and "Persistent Organic Pollutants". In the evaluation of keyword clusters with highlighted research points, 7 clusters were obtained from the publications, which are related to the chemical properties, synthesis, structures, health effects, and analysis methods of dirty dozen POPs. The number of publications and, accordingly, the scientific interest in dirty dozen POPs listed under the SC has not reached equilibrium and continues regardless of the level of development of countries in the world.