Global Trends and Current Advances in Slow/Controlled-Release Fertilizers: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1990 to 2023

Slow/controlled-release fertilizers (SRFs/CRFs) occupy a critical position in agricultural advancement, enhancing productivity and sustainability by regulating nutrient release, improving fertilizer efficiency, reducing pollution, and promoting lasting agricultural progress. To attain an in-depth understanding of the current landscape, hotspots, and development trends in SRF/CRF research, this study employed the Bibliometrix toolkit in R, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace for the statistical and graphical analysis of pertinent literature in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database from 1990 to 2023. In this study, several dimensions were evaluated to assess the research scope and impact, including the quantity of published articles, authorship, citation frequency, keywords, institutional affiliations, publication journals, and source countries. The results indicate a significant increase in scholarly publications related to SRFs/CRFs from 1990 to 2023, totaling 1676 published papers across 77 subject categories. Research activities spanned 69 countries/regions, with China and the USA leading contributions. A total of 1691 research institutions published on SRFs/CRFs, with the University of Florida, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China’s Shandong Agricultural University being preeminent. HortScience, Science of the Total Environment, and Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis were the top three journals. Keyword co-occurrence and burst analysis disclosed that current research primarily focuses on several key areas: nitrogen (N) use efficiency, the processes of nitrification and denitrification, degradation, the use of phosphate (P) fertilizers, urea, and factors affecting crop growth and quality. The findings revealed several critical areas and trends within the sphere of SRFs/CRFs, with future research specifically directed towards developing cost-effective, efficacious, and environmentally friendly alternatives. Furthermore, future progress will concentrate on addressing the enduring environmental ramifications of SRF/CRF utilization.