Analysis of the current research status of oats based on bibliometrics from 2010 to 2019

Using the visualization software of CiteSpace, the current development and research issues concerning oats (Avena sativa) were explored by critically reviewing the publications from a 10-year period (2009–2019), which were collected from both the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI, including Chinese core journals and CSCD) and Web of Science Core Collection of Science Citation Index Expanded Database (WOS). The results showed that, during the past 10 years, 1) there was an increasing trend concerning the publications on oats. Regarding the number of publications, the top five most productive countries were the United States, China, Canada, Brazil, and Poland, with the proportion of publications exceeding 8%; 2) the research topics and hotspots of oats are listed as follows: β-glucan, breeding, physicochemical properties, resistance, yield, and quality; 3) there were few studies concerning oat molecular marker-assisted and genetic engineering breeding, which will be a major task for domestic oat genetics and breeding workers in China; and 4) at present, research on the structure, properties, and extraction methods of oat-glucan needs to be more in-depth, and research on the mechanisms behind the physiological functions of oat-glucan should be strengthened in the future.