Analysis of the research trend of alfalfa in China and the United States based on the Web of Science database

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), known as the “queen of the forages”, is one of the most important forage crops that is widely cultivated in the world. Papers pertaining alfalfa published from 1998 to 2021 were retrieved and screened, with the words “Medicago sativa” or “alfalfa” or “lucerne” in the titles, based on the Web of Science database. Further, the papers were refined for those published in China and the United States, and the retrieved papers were analyzed according to the number and trend of published papers, research directions, institutions, and journals to provide reference for the future research of alfalfa in China, and to make China’s alfalfa industry better applied to social production. Our results showed that as the leader of alfalfa research, the United States has far more papers than other countries. These papers mainly focus on agronomy, technical research such as dairy science, entomology and food science, and pay attention to the economic and benefit development of alfalfa. Further, most of the published journals are professional journals of dairy products, crops, and animals. The number of papers on alfalfa in China, the second largest alfalfa research country, has increased rapidly in recent years, and has exceeded that in the United States since 2016. Meanwhile, the papers in China have been based on the basic research of plant science, agronomy, and environmental science, focusing on the stress resistance and quality of alfalfa, and have been published in plant and comprehensive journals. In the future, depending on the current development needs of alfalfa industry in China, researchers should steadily pay attention to the basic research of alfalfa and strengthen technical research of alfalfa, to contribute to better serve the development of alfalfa industry in China.