A bibliometric analysis of the literature on goat breeding 

Introduction

Almost 55% of the world’s goat population are held by China and India (29 and 26%, respectively) (Utaaker et al., 2021). The second largest continent in terms of goat numbers is Africa, with nearly 34.5% of the world’s goat population, with the largest goat numbers in Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania, while North, Central, and South America, together with Oceania, account for only 4.7%, and Europe accounts for only 2.2% (Miller and Lu, 2019). Goats play a continuous role in modern agriculture, although they have varying purposes in various cultures; they are also a reliable source of meat, milk, skin, and fiber, but they are also reserved for their role in traditional and cultural ceremonies (Mdladla et al., 2017). Goat farming involves the raising and breeding of domestic goats. Despite the high number of published studies on this topic, the evolution of goat breeding research remains largely unknown. According to Colombino et al. (2021), bibliometric analysis is an interesting statistical approach that analyzes many articles and books in scientific content to identify future directions of a specific topic. The bibliometric analysis is generally used to identify the development of a certain field and analyzed scientific outputs (Pritchard, 1969; Zeleznik et al., 2017). In addition, Meo et al. (2013) indicated that bibliometric analysis plays a key role in the strategic planning and development of research in a knowledge domain, which provides an understanding of the size and growth of scientific literature in the discipline of concern within a specified time frame. Therefore, bibliometric studies on goat breeding are vital, as it is becoming increasingly challenging to remain up-to-date with everything that is being published on the topic. To the best of our knowledge, no previous bibliometric analyses have been conducted on goat breeding. Therefore, the aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of goat breeding to evaluate current trends, gaps in knowledge, and future perspectives. This study will assist researchers in recognizing potential research gaps in goat breeding. Furthermore, the present study will help encourage and explore scientific findings on goat breeding and future research projections.

Methods

Results

Figure 1 presents the annual scientific production. Goat-breeding studies have been performed for the first time since 1991. After 2007, there was a significant increase in approximately 32 studies, but it decreased to 33 in 2014. Unfortunately, the number of studies conducted has shown an increasing trend in the recent past, specifically since 2018. In 2023, there were 34 studies available, considering that this year was not yet completed, it would be unnecessary to make a negative evaluation.

Figure 1. Annual scientific production of goat breeding studies.

Average citations per year

Figure 2 shows the average number of citations per year. The results showed that the highest average citation count occurred in 2006 (31.35). This result could be directly related to the increase in the number of studies conducted in 2006. After 2013, there was a significant decrease in the average number of citations.

Figure 2. Average citations per year in goat breeding studies.

Most relevant sources

The most Relevant Sources of goat breeding studies are shown in Figure 3. The results indicated that several journals were popular in the scientific field. In total, 265 scientific journals in the WoS database have published goat breeding studies. Small Ruminant Research led to the remaining with 145 articles.

Figure 3. Most relevant sources in goat breeding studies.

Trend topic keywords

The trend topic keywords in goat breeding studies according to the years between 1991 and 2023 are presented in Figure 4. According to the bibliometric results, “sheep” term was used 182 times and leads to the list. Following that, the “traits” and “diversity” terms were used 74 and 62 times respectively. The “sheep” term was used between 2009 and 2019. In addition, the second most used term named “traits” was used between 2010 and 2021 while the third most used term “diversity” was used between 2009 and 2018. Searching of the “sheep” term may be related to the small ruminants.

Figure 4. Trend topic keywords of the studies about goat breeding.

Country of the corresponding authors

The countries of the corresponding authors that have published scientific studies on goat breeding are illustrated in Figure 5. In this result, single-country publications (SCP) and multiple-country publications (MCP) represent the number of publications by researchers from the same country and the number of publications by researchers from multiple countries, respectively. According to the corresponding authors, India is the first country with 114 scientific papers (SCP:110 and MCP:4). India is followed by China and Italy. The results showed that the second country China has produced 96 scientific studies (SCP:87; MCP:9). Italy ranked third and produced 95 scientific studies (SCP: 66 and MCP:29). The results also indicate that Italy was the most collaborative country with respect to studies on goat breeding.

Figure 5. The countries of the corresponding authors that publish scientific studies about goat breeding.

Most relevant authors

Figure 6 presents the most relevant authors in studies on goat breeding. The findings revealed that Dixit SP, Verma NK, and Aggarwal RAK were ranked as the top three authors, with 21, 17, and 14 scientific studies, respectively. These authors have been working on the biodiversity of goats.

Figure 6. Most relevant authors in the goat breeding studies.

Core sources by Bradford’s law

The core sources obtained by Bradford’s law are presented in Figure 7. The results indicate that the sources were divided into three main zones according to Bradford’s law. In total, 338, 333, and 329 articles were found in Zones 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Zone 1, representing core sources and high levels of productivity, is shown with vertical and gray lines, respectively. Zone 1 had 338 articles and seven journals, while Zone 2 (moderate) had 333 articles and 40 journals, representing moderate productivity. Zone 3 (minor) has 329 articles and 218 journals, representing low productivity. In Zone 1, which exhibits high productivity, 338 articles were identified in seven of the world’s most popular journals, namely, Small Ruminant Research, Tropical Animal Health and Production, Indian Journal of Animal Sciences, Animals, Journal of Dairy Science, Italian Journal of Animal Science, and Journal of Animal Science.

Figure 7. Core sources by Bradford’s Law.

Discussion

Goats are adapted to various farming conditions and contribute to viable livestock production systems and food security, which makes many farmers interested in goat breeding (Gautam et al. 2019). This study was conducted using bibliometric analysis to identify emerging trends in goat breeding. Bibliometric analysis provides a literature review of a specific area using computer technology (Han et al., 2020). Bibliometric analysis enables the establishment of visual networks and associated structures to make general inferences regarding a specific topic in any discipline (Thanuskodi, 2010; Onder and Tirink, 2022). From the distribution of one thousand studies published between 1991-2023 on goat breeding, it was observed that the highest number of studies were conducted in 2020. The review of this study on average citations per year observed that most citations occurred in 2006. The current research on most relevant types of sources indicated sources such as tropical animal health and production, small ruminants research, Indian journal of animal science, animals, journal of dairy science, Italian journal of animal science, journal of animal science, scientific paper-series D-animals science, Asian Australasian journal of animal sciences and journal of applied animal research. Research on small ruminants was the most relevant source in the field of goat breeding, with one hundred and fifty four. The review observed the term “sheep” as the most top keyword used between the year 1991-2023. In terms of the country with the most corresponding authors, the researchers observed that India was the leading country with one-hundred and fourteen scientific papers. The review according to most relevant authors displayed various authors such as Dixit SP, Verma NK, Aggarwal RAK, Capote J, Chen H, Dalgado JV, Sharma A, Sharma R, Liu X and Ribeiro MN. The most relevant author was Dixit SP with twenty-one scientific studies in goat breeding. Bradford’s Law divides the core sources into three zones, one representing high, two moderate, and three minors. The researchers observed that zone one had high productivity with three-hundred and thirty-eight articles from the seven most popular journals. In a bibliometric study that speaks to the same matter but different animals of interest, publication data were collected from the Web of Science for the year 2013-2019. It was observed that 499 studies were published in the field of buffalo breeding, and the highest number of studies was published in 2013. The review showed that more information comes from the articles, and the most relevant sources were from the buffalo bulletin. The researchers indicated that India is the country where most publications were conducted and observed Hristov AN as the most relevant author with seventy-five articles in the field of water buffalo (Celik, 2021). Bradford’s law was used to identify the most relevant sources of a particular topic. According to the law, journals are arranged in descending order based on the number of articles published on the topic. Consecutive zones of periodicals containing the same number of articles form a simple geometric series of 1: n:n²:n³ (Biblioshiny, 2019; Orăștean and Mărginean, 2023).