Knowledge diffusion of Geodetector: A perspective of the literature review and Geotree

Spatial heterogeneity is a fundamental research topic in the field of geography, and Geodetector is a widely used tool for studying this phenomenon. To understand the research advancements and knowledge diffusion trends surrounding Geodetector, we constructed an author evolutionary tree structure fusing its 847 core citations in the Web of Science database and Geotree model for the first time. The results of our literature statistics indicated that Geodetector has garnered the attention of 3123 authors from 48 countries since its publication in the Ecological Indicators journal in 2010, who have published core papers concerning ten important topics. The majority of these studies focused on spatial heterogeneity and its influencing factors. Our analysis of Geotree data revealed a significant correlation between the publication rate of scholars in large teams and their academic activities. Our analysis of the knowledge diffusion chain shown that only 2% of the total number of authors have contributed to over 20% of the scientific collaborations and knowledge diffusion, and they were recognized as experts in Geodetector research. To provide a comprehensive reference for future scholars, we have summarized the citing countries, five classical articles, main scientific domains, and core teams of Geodetector research.