Bibliometric-based analysis of advances in research on Elymus

In order to present the current trends in the research field on Elymus and the influence of different countries, institutions, researchers, and journals on this field, the VOSviewer and CiteSpace softwares were used to perform statistical analysis and investigate the relevant literature on Elymus in the CNKI and Web of Science between 1980–2020. The results showed that the quantity of Elymus-related articles was stabilized after a period of increase over 1980 to 2020. The results also showed that China made the greatest contribution to international cooperation and ranked the first in the number of articles, accounting for 56.6% of the WOS database, indicating that China had a high influence in the research field on Elymus. In the WOS database, the Lanzhou University ranked the first in terms of article numbers and total citations, while the United States Department of Agriculture rated at the top of the list in the highest average citation times. Among the Chinese research institutions, the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Lanzhou University, and Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first to third, respectively, in the highest number of published articles, total citation times, and average citation times. The analysis of the research frontier trend and citation showed that the keywords in the research field on Elymus, such as ‘Species richness’, ‘Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’, and ‘Vegetation restoration’, were the research hotspots in recent years. Therefore, the wide application of Elymus in ecology restoration and related research fields will be key research directions on Elymus.