Tracking the plastic footprint: a bibliometric mapping of microplastics research in Asia (2015–2025)

The growing crisis of microplastic pollution poses serious environmental and public health challenges, yet despite Asia’s central role in plastic leakage and research growth, its scholarly landscape over the past decade remains unmapped. This study addresses this gap by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 3,797 Scopus-indexed articles published between 2015 and 2025, employing an integrated approach that combines performance analysis, co-citation analysis, and co-word analysis using VOSviewer software. The results reveal an exponential surge in research output since 2019, with China, India, and Indonesia emerging as key contributors. Citation analysis highlights seminal works on atmospheric transport, soil contamination, and human ingestion as influential drivers of the field. Co-citation mapping identifies four intellectual clusters, mainly foundational conceptual frameworks, environmental pathways, global plastics accounting, and ecological impacts. Meanwhile co-word analysis uncovers three thematic domains: pollution sources and detection, ecological and biological effects, and environmental fate and transport. Overlay visualization further demonstrates a temporal shift from early descriptive and methodological studies toward interdisciplinary, solution-oriented research integrating ecological risk assessment and human health concerns. By synthesizing a decade of scholarship, this study provides a critical evidence base for guiding future research priorities and informs risk assessment strategies, policy design, and global governance efforts aimed at mitigating the escalating microplastics crisis.