Emergence of a new discipline in the earth sciences: Bibliometric analysis of photogrammetry and remote sensing literature

Abstract

Remote sensing science is a rapidly growing field of the Earth sciences. Since its emergence and to the present day an extensive volume of literature has been published which traces wide application of remote sensing in human activities. According to the ISI Web of Science in 1965-2005 more than 19,000 papers were published on remote sensing. A number of papers grew exponentially with a doubling period of about 6 years. Notwithstanding all specialized journals there are a lot more remote sensing papers published in a vast list of source titles (up to 350 journals). Only 25% of the retrieved papers are published in 10 journals which ISI is assigned to a subject category of remote sensing. The time line of remote sensing periodicals issued in 1908-1995 shows an exponential growth with a doubling period of about 15 years. After 1995 there is a prominent deviation from the exponential curve which shows the demand saturation for specialized journals. The revealed features are discussed in terms of dynamics and impact of remote sensing in the current Earth sciences development.