Research trends and hotspots of fisheries science in major fisheries countries in the world

The study aimed to reveal the trends and research hotspots of fisheries science in major fisheries countries in the world. Based on the data collected in InCites and Web of science Core Collection database from 2000 to 2018 and we used the method of bibliometrics analysis to review documents related to the study on fisheries science. We firstly created descriptive statistics of the number of articles published annually and the journal frequency distribution. Then, the methods of author, institution cooperation network and keyword based knowledge mapping were used to explore the research hotspots of fisheries science in the world. Descriptive statistics suggested that the number of documents in USA has maintained at a high level and showed a dynamic fluctuation, with a slight downtrend in recent years. The documents number in China Mainland has basically increased exponentially, showing a steady upward trend, approaching the documents number in the USA by 2018. The other countries have shown a relatively stable dynamic fluctuation. Researches in all countries are increasingly focusing on cooperation among countries, institutions and authors. The journals distribution is consistent with the law of literature dispersion proposed by Bradford. Most of the top 20 journals in major fisheries countries in the world are top journals, which have great academic influence. Marine and freshwater biology, veterinary medicine, oceanography, zoology, immunology, limnology, biochemistry and molecular biology are the dominant disciplines of fisheries science in the world, but the key research areas of each country are different. The research hotspots are: 1) fishery management and protection research based on biological reference points; 2) fishery resources evaluation and management strategy research; 3) basic biology research of fishery resources; 4) management measures and policy objectives research based on ecosystem. And all the research hotspots are highly integrated and promote the development of comprehensive interdisciplinary.