Special Topic of Oil Spills
Published September 2010
The recent devastation to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and subsequent spill of close to 5 million barrels of crude oil has caught the world's attention. This is the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, though it is hardly an isolated incident.
The features of this Special Topic outlined above represent distinct slices of citation data. By approaching citation data from multiple angles, we can observe trends and anomalies across categories—leading to more rich and nuanced stories behind the data.
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2010. This analysis was created using the Web of Science® from Clarivate. The resulting database contained 5,753 (10 years) and 1,691 (2 years) papers; 14,166 authors; 117 nations; 1,399 journals; and 3,897 institutions. See additional information below in the overview & methodology sections.
Topic Overview
An oil stain extends over the sand of Jose
Ignacio beach in Maldonado, 180 km out from Montevideo, on February 12
as the oil tanker San Jorge, under Panamanian flag, continues
to spill oil 20 miles from the coast. The spill is threatening the Isla
de Lobos, the world's largest sea lion reserve.
REUTERS
The recent devastation to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and subsequent spill of close to 5 million barrels of crude oil has caught the world's attention. This is the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, though it is hardly an isolated incident. In fact, this year alone, there have been oil spills in China, India, Egypt, and three others in the US—one in Michigan and two more in the Gulf of Mexico unrelated to the Deepwater Horizon spill—for which cleanup efforts are still ongoing.
The environmental and economic impacts of oil spills are astronomical in scale and time span. Details surrounding the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska are still being contested in court. Effects of spills that occurred in the 1960s are still evident today.
Marine oil spills are only one aspect of the problem. There are also petroleum seeps in soil, contamination in wastewater, and runoff from everyday industrial activity (as opposed to accidents), to name a few. Technologies to remediate oil contamination are also steadily being investigated.
With this analysis, Special Topics examines the literature on oil spills over the past decade and over the past two years.
Constructing the Database
To construct the initial data pool, the keywords "oil spill*" OR "oil leak*" OR "oil slick*" OR "oil contam*" OR "oil pollut*" OR "petroleum spill*" OR "petroleum leak*" OR "petroleum slick*" OR "petroleum contam*" OR "petroleum pollut*" OR "Exxon Valdez*" OR "Deepwater Horizon*" OR "Fergana Valley*" OR "Jiyeh*" OR "Tasman Spirit*" OR "Sea Empress*" OR "Braer*" OR "Aegean Sea oil*" Or "Ixtoc*" OR "tarball*" OR "petroleum hydrocarbon*"were used to search titles, abstracts, and keywords of original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers published in the Web of Science® database from Clarivate between January 1, 2000 and June 30, 2010.
To make the paper lists more on-point, we restricted the titles to contain the keywords "oil" or "petroleum."
Note: Due to the lack of core papers on this subject, there is not a Research Front Map to accompany the Special Topic of Oil Spills.
INTERVIEWs MENU
Read interviews, first-person essays, profiles, and other features about people in a wide variety of fields, along with information on journals & institutions in the topic of Oil Spills. All of the author comments below are also listed in the site-wide Author Commentaries listings (available by month/year or alphabetically).
FEBRUARY 2011
Ian Snape Discusses Oil Contamination in the
Antarctic
Our Special Topics analysis on oil
spills research over the past decade ranks the work of Professor
Ian Snape at #4 by total number of papers, based on 26 papers
cited a total of 233 times. In the
Web of Science® from
Clarivate his
record includes 59 original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers
cited a total of 568 times from January 1, 2000 to January 8, 2011. In
this interview, ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes
talks with Snape about his highly cited work in the Antarctic.
JANUARY 2011
Charles Greer Talks about the Practicality of
Bioremediation
Our Special Topics analysis on oil
spills ranks the work of Dr. Charles Greer at #7 by total number
of papers and #9 by total cites, based on 12 papers cited 354
times. Greer's work also appears in
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate,
where he is among the top 1% of researchers in the field of
Microbiology, with 37 papers cited a total of 759 times between January
1, 2000 and August 31, 2010. In this interview,
ScienceWatch.com correspondent Gary Taubes talks with Greer
about his highly cited work as it pertains to oil spills and
bioremediation.
DECEMBER 2010
Rosa Margesin Discusses Bioremediation in Alpine
Soils
The work of Prof. Dr. Rosa Margesin
ranks at #4 by total cites in our Special Topics analysis on Oil
Spills research over the past decade. Her record in our analysis
includes 14 papers cited 461 times. In the
Web of Science®she has 42 articles,
reviews, and proceedings papers cited a total of 902 times from
2000-2010. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com talks with
Margesin about her work in bioremediation as it relates to
oil-contaminated soils.
NOVEMBER 2010
Christopher Reddy Talks About the Long-Term Effects of Oil
Spills
Our Special Topics analysis of oil
spills research over the past decade shows that the work of Dr.
Christopher Reddy ranks at #6 by total papers and #7 by total
citations, based on 23 papers cited a total of 372 times. His
record in
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate
includes 107 papers, the majority of which are classified under
Environment & Ecology, cited a total of 1,760 times between January
1, 2000 and June 30, 2010. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com
correspondent Gary Taubes talks with Reddy about his extensive work in
oil spills.
OCTOBER 2010
Joan Albaigés on the Importance of Response Protocols in
Oil Spills
Our analysis of oil spills research
over the past decade ranks the work of Dr. Joan Albaigés at
#5 by total number of papers and at #19 by total number of cites,
based on 24 papers cited a total of 260 times. In
Essential Science IndicatorsSM from
Clarivate,
his record includes 47 papers, the majority of which are classified in
the field of Environment & Ecology, cited a total of 533 times
between January 1, 2000 and June 30, 2010. This month,
ScienceWatch.com talks with him about his work on oil spills.
SEPTEMBER 2010
Stanley Rice on the Long-Term Effects and Lessons of the
Exxon Valdez Spill
According to our Special Topics analysis of
oil spills publications over the past decade, the work of Dr.
Stanley "Jeep" Rice ranks at #8 by total cites and #12 by number
of papers, based on 18 papers cited 368 times. In th
Web of Science®, his record
includes 38 papers cited a total of 539 times between January 1, 2000
and August 14, 2010. In this interview, ScienceWatch.com talks
with him about his research related to oil spills.
Thresholds
Once the database was in place, it was used to generate list of authors, journals, institutions, and nations. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper*. The paper thresholds and corresponding percentages used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper, and total papers respectively are as follows:
| Entity | Authors | Institutions | Journals | Nations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thresholds | 8 | 24 | 36 | 12 |
| Percentage: | 1% | 1% | 2% | 50% |
| *Unless otherwise specified, all rankings have a >= 5 paper threshold for all measures. | ||||
Methodology
The baseline time span for this database is (publication years) January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2010. This analysis was created using the Web of Science® database. The resulting database contained 5,753 (10 years) and 1,691 (2 years) papers; 14,166 authors; 117 nations; 1,399 journals; and 3,897 institutions.
Keywords
The Internet search terms for this Topic are:
OIL SPILL, LEAK, SLICK, CONTAMINATION, POLLUTION, PETROLEUM, POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS, EXXON VALDEZ, DEEPWATER HORIZON, FERGANA VALLEY, JIYEH, TASMAN SPIRIT, SEA EMPRESS, BRAER, AEGEAN SEA OIL, IXTOC, TARBALL, MICROBIOLOGY, REMEDIATION, BLACK SEA, TOXICITY, LONG-TERM EFFECTS, BIOSURFACTANTS, BIOREMEDIATION, WEST FALMOUTH, SEDIMENTS, SORPTION, CONTAINMENT, ECOLOGY, SALMON, CONTAMINATED SOIL, PLUME, GULF WAR OIL SPILL, SPECTROSCOPY, BEACHES, PHYTOREMEDIATION, PRESTIGE, MICROWAVE-ASSISTED STRIPPING, CHEMICAL CLEANING, WEATHERING, SEEPS, ORGANISMS, NANOSPONGES, BIODEGRADATION.
Reuters Picture Gallery/Featured Images
The images throughout the Special Topic of Oil Spills are from Reuters Pictures. Most pictures directly relate to the papers and locations in the database. There are 53 images with descriptions in the gallery.
View the Oil Spills Picture Gallery
About Reuters Pictures
This site includes material which is copyright 2010 Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters logo are registered trademarks, and trademarks of the Clarivate group of companies. For additional information on Reuters photographic services, please visit the web site at http://pictures.reuters.com.
Featured Image: A woman resident of the village of Doninos looks at the beach after new stains of fuel oil appeared overnight near her house north of El Ferrol in northern Spain on November 22, 2002. Thousands of birds, fish and wildlife have been affected after the Prestige tanker laden with 70,000 tonnes of fuel oil split in two and sank, triggering what ecologists said could become one of the world's worst oil spills. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan.