Coffee Genetic Diversity and Genomics: A Bibliometric Tropical Perspective

Abstract

Coffee genetic resources play a fundamental role in supporting sustainable production, crop improvement, and climate resilience. Over the past decades, rapid advances in molecular genetics and genomics have transformed coffee research; however, a comprehensive understanding of the intellectual development, thematic evolution, and future research directions of this field remains limited. This study aimed to systematically map the global landscape of coffee genetics and genomics research through a bibliometric analysis of 867 English-language journal articles indexed in the Scopus database and published between 1974 and 2024. Bibliometric analyses were conducted using Microsoft Excel, Harzing's Publish or Perish, and VOSviewer to evaluate publication trends, leading journals, countries, authors, citation networks, co-authorship, co-citation, and thematic evolution based on co-occurrence and overlay visualizations. The results demonstrate a substantial increase in scientific output over the past five decades, with France and Brazil emerging as the leading contributors to publication productivity and international collaboration. Co-citation analysis identified Philippe Lashermes and Bertrand B. as central figures shaping the intellectual structure of the field, while thematic analyses revealed a clear transition from studies emphasizing genetic diversity and phylogenetic characterization toward integrative genomics, functional genomics, molecular breeding, bioinformatics, and high-throughput sequencing. The overlay visualization further indicates an increasing emphasis on computational biology and genomics-driven approaches in recent years. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive bibliometric perspective on the evolution of coffee genetics and genomics research and identifies future research priorities, including multi-omics integration, artificial intelligence-assisted genomic prediction, genome editing, and expanded genomic characterization of wild Coffea species to support biodiversity conservation and the development of climate-resilient coffee cultivars in tropical production systems.