Bibliometric revision regarding the use of survival analysis in seed germination studies

Abstract

Studies on seed science are developed for a wide range of purposes, being the statistical analysis of data essential for experimental reliability and evidence. Due to the characteristics of seed data, several statistical methods can be applied, among them the survival analysis stands out, in virtue of allocating censored data and describing phenomena over time. Therefore, this bibliometric study verified the use of survival analysis in studies with seed germination and to examine the applications of survival analysis in original articles from the Web of Science database for the period from 2000 to 2020. For the application of survival analysis, there was a low number of publications related to seed science, with the USA being the country with the highest number of publications mainly to studies in plant ecology and physiology. In general, the researches were most involved to the evaluation of factors influencing dormancy, physiological stresses, dispersion capacity, population differences and habitats of development which affected seed germination. Therefore, the qualitative overview demonstrates that the survival analysis is a statistical tool of great potential regarding the studies in the area.