A scientometric analysis of global sea cucumber original research articles from 1970 to 2023

This investigation adopts a robust scientometric methodology, utilizing the analytical power of CiteSpace, to delineate the evolving scholarly landscape of sea cucumber original research articles across various scientific disciplines. Through the examination of 5407 original research articles and 245,566 citations, we observed a pronounced increase in citation frequency that significantly exceeds the growth in annual publication output. Our analysis highlights a notable geographic concentration of research output, with approximately half of the analyzed articles originating from China. Key terms such as "Apostichopus japonicus", "growth", and "Echinodermata" are prevalent, whereas terms like "body-wall", "marine natural products", and "gut microbiota" are identified as influential within the research community. Our co-citation analysis delineated ten principal thematic clusters, such as "Juvenile Sea Cucumber Dynamics", "Biodiversity of Sea Cucumbers", and "Functional Analysis of Apostichopus japonicus". Our findings underscore the necessity of refining both biotic and abiotic growth parameters to enhance aquaculture yields and sustainability of sea cucumbers in controlled environments.