Global Research Trends and Frontiers in Microplastic Pollution: A Bibliometric Systematic Analysis

Abstract

: This comprehensive bibliometric analysis examines global research trends in microplastic pollution on the planet in the period between 2004 and 2024, which involved searching Web of Science Core Collection and analyzing 11,784 articles. Employing advanced science mapping techniques including co-citation analysis, key-word co-occurrence network, and burst detection algorithms, this paper shows that there is an exponential growth trend where the publication numbers have increased almost 1000-folds since 2010. China, United States and Germany became the top achievers, with a combined total of 60% of the world output. They were divided into five large thematic clusters, including environmental distribution and sources, analytical methods, ecotoxicology, human health impacts, and the remediation strategies. Temporal analysis demonstrated that there were three developmental stages: nascent (2004-2014), expansion (2015-2019), and maturation (2020-2024) in which each had specific research priorities and patterns of geographic participation. Emerging frontiers include nanoplastics characterization, human health risk assessment, machine learning applications for particle identification, and circular economy frameworks. Significant research gaps persist in Global South representation, standardized methodologies, and policy-science integration. This paper has some evidence-based suggestions of the future research priorities with the necessity of international collaboration, methodological harmonization and solution oriented studies as the priority to solve this significant environmental problem.