Mapping the landscape of APSIM-driven agricultural research: a bibliometric analysis and future perspectives

Agricultural research has consistently progressed through the integration of advanced technologies into farming systems. A significant paradigm shift in agricultural production system research has occurred with the development of simulation models, most notably the Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM). The APSIM supports a wide range of applications in agriculture, including on-farm decision-making on the basis of historical climatic data and future climatic projections. It also informs policymaking through climate risk assessment, forecast-based management systems, and simulations for diverse crops and cropping systems. These applications offer opportunities for bibliometric analysis, a quantitative method for analyzing trends in academic research and publications to explore the impact, trends, and research gaps in this research domain. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of APSIM-related research publications indexed in the Scopus database. The analysis reveals an exponential growth of APSIM-related research from 1989 to 2023, with 1273 documents published across 118 scholarly journals, indicating the model's increasing relevance in addressing the critical challenges of global agricultural research. Our analyses identify the contributions and collaborative networks among authors, journals, institutions, and countries. It identifies key emerging issues, including climate change adaptation and mitigation, precision agriculture, and advancements in crop modeling, indicating the adaptability of APSIM to modern agricultural challenges. These findings will serve as valuable resources for researchers to facilitate collaboration, innovation, and informed decision-making in addressing the complex demands of 21st century agriculture.