Research Status and Hot Spots of Exopolysaccharides Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Based on the bibliometrics of scientific literature, CiteSpace and VOSviewer software are used to investigate exopolysaccharides (EPS) in Web of Science (WOS) core collection database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database from 2013 to 2023. In the field of EPS, 4047 English literatures and 1212 Chinese literatures are analyzed by quantitative statistics and visualization. The research status and hotspots of EPS are revealed by the perspectives of annual publication numbers, authors, highly cited literatures, publication journals, publication institutions, publication countries, keyword co-occurrences and emergences. The results shows that the overall number of published papers in the field of EPS is increasing year by year. Major contributors are Dertli Enes, De Philippis Roberto, Xu Chunping and so on, whereas the communication and cooperation among authors needto be strengthened. The most highly cited literatures in the WOS and CNKI databases are Strategies for combating bacterial biofilms: A focus on anti-biofilm agents and their mechanisms of action and Investigation of Biofilm formation Mechanism and its Influencing Factors, respectively. The top three journals are International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Frontiers in Microbiology and Carbohydrate Polymers. The top three institutions are Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Egyptian knowledge bank (EKB) and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The publication countries mainly are China, India and the United States, whereas academic impact of China in the field of EPS need to be improved. Keyword co-occurrence analysis shows that the hot spots are optimization of fermentation conditions, developement of EPS function and production EPS by lactic acid bacteria. It reveals that mining of biological function, biosynthesis and industrial application of EPS are the main directions of future research. Based on bibliometrics, this paper expounds and analyzes the research status and hot spots in the field of EPS, providing certain references for future research.