A 20-year bibliometric analysis of emerging contaminant research in China: A comparative perspective from global trends and the POPs forum

As China transitions toward the systematic risk prevention of emerging contaminants (ECs), understanding its evolving scientific capacity is essential for global environmental governance. This study employs a bibliometric framework to analyze two decades (2006–2025) of proceedings from the Forum on Persistent Organic Pollutants in China (POPs Forum), benchmarking them against global Web of Science data. Results indicate that global EC publications follow a logistic growth pattern with a maturation phase after 2019, whereas the POPs Forum continues to exhibit exponential growth, indicating sustained domestic research expansion. Network analysis reveals a dual-core global structure dominated by China and the United States (US), with China increasingly acting as a hub between developed and emerging economies. At the institutional level, the POPs Forum demonstrates strong overlap with the most productive domestic research organizations, reflecting its representativeness. Thematic evolution analysis indicates a consistent shift from legacy POPs to ECs, alongside a transition from occurrence-based studies to risk assessment and remediation-oriented research. Overall, the POPs Forum provides a representative lens through which to understand the evolution of EC research in China and its alignment with global trends. Future research is expected to advance toward non-target screening, high-throughput assessment, and integrated risk-based management frameworks.