Comparative Analysis of Research Dynamics and Hotspots of Chinese and Foreign Soybeans from 2000 to 2020 Based on CiteSpace

Soybean production in China has received extensive attention in recent years. In order to find out the research situation of soybeans at home and abroad and the research differences between the main soybean producing areas in my country, starting with a quantitative analysis of China′s soybean production and trade status, the method of bibliometrics was used to publish relevant research literatures on soybean as the research object in CNKI and Web of Science database from 2000 to 2020. It analyzed the number of publications, journal sources, and citations of international and domestic soybean research, and used CiteSpace 5.7.R5 software to discuss the differences in soybean research hotspots between China and foreign countries and the development prospects of domestic soybean production. The results showed that as follows: The research hotspots of soybean mainly involved in yield and quality improvement, variety breeding, soil nutrients, the effects of diversified planting on soybean, and the countermeasures and response mechanism of soybean under the condition of climate change. In comparison, the research on soybean in foreign countries paid more attention to quality, while the research on soybean in China paid more attention to yield. The development of soybean in China experienced a dynamic change from focusing on genetic inheritance and quality to gradually changing the agronomic and climatic characteristics of soybean. The current research frontiers of soybean were focused on the effects of different cultivation and management measures on agronomic traits of soybean and the effects of adverse weather on the growth and development of soybean. In China, the research on northern spring soybean was more than that on Huang-Huai-Hai summer soybean. In addition to the common research contents, soil fertility was more concerned in northern spring soybean region, and water use was more concerned in Huang-Huai-Hai summer soybean region. In China, total soybean production and planting area showed a trend of decreasing volatility year by year from 2000 to 2015, and gradually recovered from 2016, but the increase in unit yield was limited. Promoting the increase in unit yield was a potential way to increase the effective supply rate of soybeans in my country. The annual average number of foreign soybean research papers published was 332, and the annual average number of Chinese soybean research papers published by Web of Science and CNKI database was 118 and 335 respectively. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society and Food Chemistry was the top three of international soybean research publications, and the rates of contribution were 5.34%, 3.64% and 3.61% respectively. Soybean Science, Chinese Journal of Oil Crop Sciences and Acta Agronomica Sinica was the top three of soybean research in China, and the rates of contribution were 32.02%, 6.17% and 4.07% respectively. In the context of the continuous expansion of soybean planting area in China, although soybean-related research has received more attention, it still needs to be strengthened in improving quality and promoting unit yield, and it needs to be further deepened in the future.