Análise bibliométrica da produção científica mundial sobre apicultura de precisão nas bases de dados Scopus e Web of Science

Abstract

Bees are fundamental in our food chain, they are the main pollinating agents and are essential for food production. However, they face difficulties to maintain the normal life cycle due to problems such as: changes in natural habitat, pollution and toxins. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are inserted in the daily activities of precision beekeeping for the remote monitoring of hives, in a less invasive way, which can contribute to the conservation and understanding of bee colonies. Despite the relevance of this topic, there is a lack of works that explore its bibliography. Bibliometrics can be described as the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media. With it, it is possible to obtain an overview of the area of precision beekeeping, build a reference base for students and researchers and assist in the elaboration of scientific projects. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to carry out a bibliometric analysis in the area of precision beekeeping. The specific objectives are: to analyze the general information of publications, authors, institutions and countries involved in the research, to indicate the most relevant journals and references in terms of publications and citations and to highlight the main research topics and emerging trends. Datasets extracted from Scopus and Web of Science were analyzed with Biblioshiny, from the Bibliometrix library, using RStudio software. In the results of the most comprehensive search string, the year that stood out for the highest number of publications in precision beekeeping was 2020. Based on the application of Lotka and Bradford’s laws, the percentage of authors who published an article on this topic and the journals with the most published articles were identified, respectively. Latvia was the country with the most published works and the most productive authors were Aleksejs Zacepins, Armands Kviesis and Vitalijs Komasilovs, from Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, the most productive university in the ranking of publications by institutions. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Biosystems Engineering and Engineering for Rural Development were the journals that stood out for the number of published documents. The most frequent keywords in the works were indicated and the trending topics in precision beekeeping (precision apiculture) from 2016 to 2022 were highlighted.