The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was selected as the data source for this study. Valuable scientific information and a comprehensive understanding of this field can be acquired conveniently using the powerful search function of WoSCC. (Ying et al., 2023).Scope of research selection with “topic” (TS) as the search field and refined in the Advanced Search module of WoSCC database with the search formula: TS = (microplastic OR microplastics OR “plastic debris” OR micro-plastic OR nanoplastics) AND TS = (marine OR sea OR ocean OR beach OR bay OR gulf OR estuary OR coastline OR shoreline) AND TS = (contamination OR pollution OR contaminate OR pollute OR stain OR filth OR contaminant OR foul) AND TS = (removal OR removal OR removed OR remove OR exenterate OR dispose OR expulsion OR erasing OR eliminate OR degradation OR degrade OR decomposition OR decompose OR degeneration OR hydrolysis OR degradable OR dissipation OR harness OR governance OR treatment OR control OR management OR government OR govern OR administration OR regulation). In addition, the language is further limited to English, and the document type is restricted to “article” and “review”. To collect relevant papers from the last decade, the search was set to span from 01/01/2013 to 12/31/2022. Finally, the research directions and topics of all publications were reviewed to remove irrelevant content, such as “Food Science & Technology, Political Philosophy,” resulting in a total of 2,357 relevant papers written by 10,074 authors from 408 countries, spanning 6,840 institutions and published in 394 journals.

Bibliometrics is an interdisciplinary discipline that uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyze data from the literature collected from the WoS core repository, including number of publications, authors, institutions, countries/regions, citations, etc., through tabulation and visual mapping. (Shiffrin and Boerner, 2004) CiteSpace and VOSviewer are the most commonly used bibliometric tools among various software. Using VOSviewer, visual collaboration graphs based on the collaboration between elements such as countries, institutions, authors, etc., can be displayed in three dimensions. (van Eck and Waltman, 2010; Pan et al., 2018) CiteSpace is a data analysis and visualization software based on set theory with a special focus on the temporal dimension, allowing the analysis of time slices through timeline analysis to further explore trends in the field. Reference co-citation knowledge domain maps and keyword timelines were created using the CiteSpace software package (Chen, 2006).

VOSviewer and CiteSpace assign each node in the network to a class cluster—a class cluster is a set of closely related nodes assigned according to a specific connectivity metric (e.g., co-citation, bibliographic coupling, etc.). These clusters are classified by the software based on the clustering algorithms built into the software, e.g., Likelihood Ratio (LLR) clustering algorithm and Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), where the nodes are knowledge bases and the labels are taken from the literature at the forefront of research. Unfortunately, we are not fully aware of the logic behind the software’s clustering algorithms, and have only analysed and discussed the results based on those derived from the software, and therefore have not discussed the division of the clusters further. VOSviewer and CiteSpace allow researchers to apply filters. We can zoom in on a certain part of the data, e.g., focusing on authors or organisations with at least 5 articles. In order to visualise the main contributions to the literature on the control of marine microplastic pollution, we have used filters, as detailed in the information below. In the course of this study, authors with 5 or more publications were selected for analysis in the author analysis, generating a total of 146 nodes. In the organizational analysis, organizations with 5 or more articles were selected for analysis, generating a total of 276 nodes. For the country analysis, countries with at least five articles were selected for analysis based on the first author assigning the article to a country, where Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland were merged to form the United Kingdom and China included Taiwan, resulting in a total of 66 nodes. For the literature co-citation analysis, literature with a minimum of 200 citations was selected, resulting in a total of 66 nodes. Among the 394 journals obtained, those with no less than 100 citations to cited journals were selected for co-citation analysis, resulting in a total of 154 nodes. A total of 3,160 keywords were extracted from the Web of Science core database. Keywords with more than 20 occurrences were selected for visual analysis, resulting in a total of 153 keyword nodes. In addition, the “Top 22 Keywords with the Strongest Citation Bursts” and “Keyword timeline” were analyzed by the software Citespace.

The statistical analysis of the number of publications in the decade 2013 to 2022 provides a clear picture of trends in scientific output and the ongoing development and maturation of marine MP research field. The distribution of research outputs on the control of MP pollution in the ocean based on time series is shown in Figure 1. From 2013 to 2017, the number of articles related to marine MP pollution control grew slowly, with less than 100 articles published in 2017. However, there was a large increase in 2018 and 2019, with annual publication volumes of 198 and 245, respectively, and the research related to marine MP pollution control gradually became a hot spot, which cannot be separated from the UNEP guidance and related policies in several countries. (Xanthos and Walker, 2017) From 2020 onwards, there is a sudden increase in published articles, with 1,686 articles related to the topic published in the last 3 years (2020–2022), accounting for 71.53% of the overall number of articles published in the last decade. This indicates that the MP issue is gaining dramatic attention from researchers, especially in the environmental and marine sciences.

The inset of Figure 1 shows the number of articles published each year by the top 10 countries or regions in terms of the total number of articles published that year. In 2013 and 2014, United Kingdom, Australia and the United States almost all ranked in the top three, contributing significantly to the research on marine MP pollution control. Also, it is worth noting that the number of articles from China has increased tremendously after 2016. After 2019, the number of articles from Chinese researchers has steadily exceeded 28%, which indicates that Chinese researchers have been actively involved in research on marine MP pollution control for several years and have achieved considerable results.

Journals have vital importance in scholarly communication and the dissemination of scientific discoveries. By conducting a journal analysis, we were able to identify influential journals within the field. Table 1 lists the top 10 prolific journals that published more than 30 articles related to the control of MP pollution in the ocean, and they are all included in SCI/SCIE.

Science of the Total Environment (Sci. Total Environ.) is an international journal for publication of original research on the total environment, which includes the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and anthroposphere. With 303 papers, Sci. Total Environ. has published the largest number of papers on marine MP pollution control studies, accounting for about 25.72%. The second-ranked journal is Marine Pollution Bulletin (Mar. Pollut. Bull., 293 papers, accounting for 24.87%), which focuses on the rational use of marine resources in estuaries, oceans and seas, as well as the documentation of marine pollution and the introduction of new forms of measurement and analysis. It deals not only with sewage treatment and pollution control but also with the management, economic aspects, and protection of the marine environment in general. The third-ranked one is Environmental Pollution (Environ. Pollut., 215 papers, accounting for 18.25%), which covers all aspects of environmental pollution and mitigation measures related to ecosystems and human health. Other core journals have also focused on the sources, distribution, biological effects and toxicity of marine MP pollution. These journals provide scholars with an important scientific basis for in-depth studies on the effects and control of marine MP pollution.

The co-citation analysis is based on an understanding of the relationship between reference lists and co-citation aspects, and can be used effectively to disclose relationships between scholarly publications or works in various fields of study. (Osareh, 1996) Since scientific literature is generated by citing earlier scholarly work, citation networks provide evidence of the knowledge base of a knowledge domain. Journal co-citation and article co-citation analyses were used in this study because they help explore structure, dynamics, and paradigm development. (Liu et al., 2015).

The purpose of keyword co-occurrence analysis is to study the core content and structure of a particular field and thus reveal the research frontiers in the field. As can be seen from the results in Figure 6, five clusters were obtained by the analysis software, where a node represents a keyword, the size of the node represents the frequency of that keyword, and the density of connecting lines between nodes represents the intensity of co-occurrence between keywords.

Cluster 1 (red): the most frequent keyword in the red cluster is “Microplastics,” in Figure 6, which is connected to more than thirty percent of the nodes. Other major nodes in the red cluster are “Polystyrene Microplastics,” “Polyethylene,” “Toxicity,” etc., An assessment of MP contamination around the island of Mauritius in the South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) region found that blue MP was the most common type of MP and polyethylene was the most common type of polymer. (Mattan-Moorgawa et al., 2021). The composition and pollutability of MPs and the harm caused to marine organisms by further formation of POPs through bioconcentration are the main studies. Ingestion of MPs by marine microorganisms can affect their movement, feeding, mating, and mechanical reception, which may limit their ability to detect prey, feed, reproduce, and evade predators. (Cole et al., 2013). Cluster 2 (yellow) has a good correlation between “Pollution”, “Plastic Debris” and “Accumulation” among 153 keywords, which are also some of the largest nodes in the red cluster. This cluster concentrates on the study of plastic debris accumulation behavior on the seafloor, beaches, and bays. Cluster 3 (green) mainly includes “Marine-Environment,” “Water Treatment Plants,” “Waste-Water” and “Fibers,” etc., A detailed understanding of the sources of marine MPs is an important prerequisite for mitigating marine MP pollution, and the discharge of sewage treatment plants in coastal cities is one of the important sources to seawater, and the MP content in discharged wastewater has an important impact on the marine environment. Not only wastewater treatment plant drainage but also freshwater systems in the mainland are important sources of seawater. (Jiajia et al., 2018). Cluster 4 (purple) includes “Sediments,” “Abundance,” and “Surface Waters.” WANG et al. analyzed MPs in freshwater rivers, such as the Yellow River, Three Gorges Reservoir and Pearl River in China, to investigate the difference between the presence of MPs in freshwater, and the impact on the abundance of marine MPs. Improving the understanding of the sources and sinks of MPs in the marine environment through their pathways to the ocean is important for reducing MP pollution. (Browne et al., 2011). In addition, a regional understanding of the abundance, distribution, and composition of beach litter is fundamental for developing strategies to manage litter pollution in specific areas. (Nelms et al., 2020). The main nodes of cluster 5 (blue) are “Sea,” “Ingestion,” “Contamination,” “Fish” and “Zooplankton.” There is evidence that MPs can be ingested by fish, shellfish, etc., and absorbed and stored by their tissues and cells, leading to a negative impact on the health of marine organisms through bioconcentration, which in turn has a profound impact on marine ecology (Bowmer and Kershaw, 2013).

In Figure 7, the x-axis shows the publication years from 2013 to 2022 and the y-axis shows the clustering of different keywords. A node represents a keyword, i.e., a larger node represents a stronger keyword, while the links between keywords indicate co-occurrence relationships with each other. (van Eck and Waltman, 2010) The Citespace software analysis produced a total of eight clusters: “marine debris,” “wastewater treatment plant,” “surface water,” “plastic ingestion,” “metals,” “marine environment,” “oxidative stress,” and “microparticles.” The timeline view clearly reflected the evolution of keywords under each representative cluster in the marine MP research literature over this period. (Seltenrich, 2015).

From 2013, the keywords that appear on the timeline include “marine environment,” “pollution,” “plastic debris,” etc., In 2014, the keywords include “sea,” “identification,” “water” and “fish.” In 2015, “degradation,” “surface water” and “micro plastic pollution” appeared. In 2021, keywords involved “polyethylene degradation” and “plastic litter”. In 2022, the keywords included “surface degradation feature,” “conservation,” “bacteria” and “bioaccumulation.”

As the highlighted keywords may reflect a sudden spike in the number of citations for a keyword over a period of time, it is possible to use CiteSpace to obtain a keyword highlighting graph to study research trends in marine microplastic control over time. As shown in Table 4 below, “plastic debris” has been a research buzzword from 2013 to 2020; “mytilus edulis,” “ingestion,” and “accumulation” are buzzwords that accompanied research on marine microplastics from 2013 to 2018. “synthetic fibres” was a research buzzword from 2018 to 2019; “toxic chemical” is a research hotspot from 2019 to 2020; “Pearl River” and “microplastic ingestion” are research hotspots from 2020 to 2022, while “ingestion” was previously looked at from 2013 to 2017. The persistence of the terms “Pearl River” and “microplastic ingestion” up to the present indicates that they are the dominant trend in research on the control of marine MPs.