Trend Analysis of Research on Arsenic Pollution in West Bengal, India
Resumen
West Bengal is one of the worst affected states in India in terms of arsenic pollution. Nine out of its nineteen administrative units are severely affected, five moderately affected and a population of over 28 million suffers from the maladies of arsenic pollution. The problem, reported initially in 1978, was clinically detected for the first time in 1983. It gained importance as an issue of concern in the late 80s and became a matter of serious scientific attention in the mid-90s. A clear understanding of the issue is justifiably important for dealing with this grave environmental and health hazard. An evaluation of topics and the scientific outputs of research conducted on arsenic pollution in West Bengal was undertaken to understand how research has progressed in dealing with this serious pollutant. The study aimed to analyze trends in arsenic pollution research patterns, drives, methods and recommendations, relevant in the context of West Bengal, India but with wider geographical applicability. A dataset of 316 publications was qualitatively categorized into five broad groups (Categories 1–5), that are described here. Publications made during 1983–2012 were divided into six equal phases at an interval of 5 years each and a last phase of 2013 was separately considered. The variations in number of publications in each of the five categories implied different trends which were individually analyzed and tested for best-fit models. All the categories were supported by quadratic trend models. The significance of such findings has been discussed in the present paper.Keywords: Arsenic, pollution, remediation, bibliometric analysis, quadratic trend
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