Supplementary Materials - Global Research Trends in Photocatalytic Degradation of Microplastics: A Bibliometric Perspective

The supplementary materials accompanying the article "Global Research Trends in Photocatalytic Degradation of Microplastics: A Bibliometric Perspective" enhance the study's transparency, reproducibility, and academic significance. These materials comprise a meticulously detailed PRISMA 2020 Checklist, which systematically records the review's compliance with established reporting standards. This checklist encompasses critical components such as the search strategy, eligibility criteria, synthesis methods, and data availability.
It is essential to note that this work represents a bibliometric review, diverging from traditional health-focused systematic reviews. Consequently, certain items within the PRISMA framework – specifically those pertaining to risk of bias assessment, protocol registration, and meta-analysis – are deemed inapplicable to this study. The checklist explicitly acknowledges and contextualizes these exceptions to uphold methodological transparency.
In addition to the PRISMA checklist, the supplementary materials include a custom R-script designed to automate merging and deduplicating bibliographic data obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and Scopus databases. This tool significantly aids in ensuring reproducibility during the data processing phase of large-scale bibliometric analyses. To further enrich the depth of analysis provided in the main article, several supplementary tables and figures are included:
-Table S1: This table documents the annual scientific output and average total citations per year, elucidating temporal trends in research activity within the field.
-Table S2: This table offers a comprehensive overview of the most productive authors, institutions, and countries contributing to research on photocatalytic degradation of microplastics.
-Figure S1: A word cloud visualization detailing the most frequently used keywords in the literature, providing insights into the evolution of research themes and focus areas over time.
-Figure S2: A global collaboration network map illustrating the density and breadth of international research partnerships within the field.
Collectively, these supplementary materials establish a robust foundation for transparency and facilitate future replication efforts. They deliver substantial value to researchers engaged in environmental science, materials chemistry, and strategies for mitigating plastic pollution. Moreover, they complement the findings articulated in the main text and serve as a vital resource for advancing bibliometric methodologies within interdisciplinary sustainability research.