A bibliometric analysis of global research progress on pharmaceutical wastewater treatment during 1994–2013

Pharmaceutical wastewater contains large amounts of high concentration refractory organic intermediates, which have got potential hazards to human health and the environment. It has attracted great attention from the governments, the public and the researchers. In this context, understanding current state of pharmaceutical wastewater treatment research can help guide future research. A bibliometric analysis based on the science citation index expanded from web of science (WoS) was carried out to assess the research pattern and tendencies of pharmaceutical wastewater treatment from 1994 to 2013. Study emphases herein included performance of publication covering annual outputs, mainstream journals, WoS categories, leading countries, institutions, research tendencies and hotspots. The results showed that the annual output of related scientific articles had increased steadily, with approximately 88 % of all articles on pharmaceutical wastewater treatment during 1994–2013 published since 2003. Water research, chemosphere and environmental science and technology were the three most common journals in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment research. The United States takes the dominant position in this field, followed by Spain and Germany. A summary of the most frequently used keywords obtained from words in paper title analysis, author keyword analysis and keywords plus analysis provided the clues to discover current research emphases. The mainstream research related to pharmaceutical wastewater was on wastewater treatment methods and the related contaminants. Adsorption, ozonation and photocatalysis were common treatment techniques and are getting popular. The commonly researched pharmaceutical wastewater contaminants were carbamazepine, diclofenac, ibuprofen, clofibric acid, and triclosan, which have emerged as the frequently studied contaminants in recent years.