Popular Subjects of Tea Studies in China from 2010 to 2021

By reviewing the most popular subjects explored by the tea industry in China from 2010 to 2021 one can extrapolate to project the future research trend in the field. From a collection of 9,444 relevant publications in the core trade journals in 12 years, statistic data and information in terms of annual publication volume, authors, affiliated institutions, publishing houses, scientific disciplines, funding sources, etc. were collected. This article applied bibliometric principle using visual and statistical analyses to arrive at the following results. (1) Annual issuance of papers—the number of papers published by the major journals relating to tea increased in the beginning of the period and declined afterward. During the most active period from 2016 to 2017, it amounted to 37.65% of the total. In year 2017 alone, the number topped 1,816 accounting for 19.23% of the total. (2) Authors of publications—the three most productive authors at the time were Gong Ziming, Liu Zhonghua, and Lin Zhi, who rendered 54, 54, and 46 papers that came to be 0.57%, 0.57%, and 0.49% of the total, respectively. In the past 12 years, the authors who have published more than 6 articles in the core journals are the core authors. A core group of investigators was unofficially formed, because the number of papers published by the core authors had not exceeded 50% of all the papers. (3) Affiliated institutions—there were organizations that sponsored more than 200 articles appeared in the periodicals. Among them, the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University, Hunan Agricultural University, and Anhui Agricultural University issued 402, 331, 239, and 207 publications accounting for 4.26%, 3.50%, 2.53%, and 2.19% of the total, respectively. (4) Trade journals—the three most productive professional periodicals, Fujian Tea, Tea Science, and Agricultural Archaeology published 2,754, 633, and 342 articles or 29.16%, 6.70%, and 3.62% of the total, respectively. They were mostly food-related journals. (5) Scientific disciplines involved—a majority of the published articles involved in the studies on food, crops, and light industrial products with 3,362, 1,228, and 963 items representing 35.60%, 13.00%, and 10.20% of the total, respectively. (6) Funding sources—the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science and Technology Support Plan, and the Construction of Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System financially contributed 876, 246, and 201 projects that were 9.28%, 2.60%, and 2.13% of the total, respectively. The greatest funds provided by provincial governments came from Fujian and Zhejiang. (7) Research subjects—a search by key words, subjects, and co-occurrence network diagram indicated that the major subjects of studies were tea studies, which focused on pesticide residues, packaging design, and quality, and tea culture, which aimed at packaging, packaging design, and tea products. The statistical analysis suggested that China’s tea culture, industry, science, and technology would be best promoted in a coordinated manner with the information dissemination and communication emphasized among the colleagues.