A bibliometric analysis of research papers related to the Mekong River

In the present study, we preformed a bibliometric analysis of published research papers related to the Mekong River during 1991–2012, based on the Science Citation Index Expended. We investigated nation, institution, authors’ research performance, the cited times, impact factor, journals and subject categories of the published papers. CPP was used as an indicator to assess the visibility of an article. The impact of countries, institutions, and authors was assessed by h-index and newly developed indicator TC2012. Results indicated that Vietnam had the most output and the most-frequent partners, next is Japan. The authors with high contribution were mainly from Japan. The most three active research fields in the Mekong River were environmental sciences, water resources and geoscience. The top five productive institutions were Chinese Acad Sci., Can Tho Univ., Cantho Univ., Yunnan Univ. and National Univ., while the top five institutions with high h-index were Chinese Acad Sci., Can Tho Univ., National University Singapore, Nong Lam Univ. and International Rice Research Insti. In addition, analysis of keywords was applied to reveal research interests which probably indicated a wide disparity in research focuses.