Análise cienciométrica de agentes microbiológicos no controle de lepidópteros nas culturas da soja e milho

Abstract

With the growing demand for sustainable methods for pest control, the adoption of biological agents has been gaining prominence as an alternative to conventional chemical insecticides, especially in crops such as soybean and corn. This study evaluated, through a scientometric analysis, the landscape of scientific production of articles on the microbial control of lepidopteran pests in these crops. Using the Web of Science and Scopus databases, 322 articles were analyzed with the aid of the RStudio and VOSviewer software. The results indicate an expanding research field, with a sharp increase in the number of publications since 2018, led by Brazil, the United States, and China. Although Brazil is the country with the highest cumulative number of publications in the area, the collaboration networks indicate a weakness: national research occurs in a disjointed manner, with little interaction among Brazilian institutions and negligible participation on the international scene. This structure of isolation is also reflected in the author collaboration network, which features a few key researchers who play a central role in linking different research groups. Furthermore, the analysis of the international landscape through bibliometric metrics confirms a pattern of concentration across the entire area, where a small number of authors and journals are responsible for the majority of publications. Additionally, the analysis using the H-index showed that the most productive journals are not necessarily the most relevant. Another point analyzed was the co-occurrence of keywords, which pointed to a concentration of studies on a few species, such as Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Noctuinae), Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner, 1809) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Heliothinae), Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner, 1915 (Bacillales: Bacillaceae), Beauveria bassiana (Bals.-Criv.) Vuill. (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae), and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokīn (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae), highlighting a gap in the exploration of new solutions for the microbial control of these and other pest species.