title: An in-depth survey of the oil spill literature since 1968: Long term trends and changes since Deepwater Horizon.
abstract: In order to characterize the state of oil spill research and describe how the field has changed since its inception in the 1960s and since the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, we examined approximately 10% of oil spill literature (1255 of over 11,000 publications) published from 1968 to 2015. We find that, despite its episodic nature, oil spill research is a rapidly expanding field with a growth rate faster than that of science as a whole. There is a massive post-Deepwater Horizon shift of research attention to the Gulf of Mexico, from 2% of studies in 2004-2008 to 61% in 2014-2015, thus ranking Deepwater Horizon as the most studied oil spill. There is, however, a longstanding gap in research in that only 1% of studies deal with the effects of oil spills on human health. These results provide a better understanding of the current trends and gaps within the field.
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States. Electronic address: davidmurphy@usf.edu.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Murphy
authors: Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States; Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States.
authors: Brad
authors: B
authors: Gemmell
authors: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.
authors: Liana
authors: L
authors: Vaccari
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States.
authors: Cheng
authors: C
authors: Li
authors: Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
authors: Hernando
authors: H
authors: Bacosa
authors: Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
authors: Meredith
authors: M
authors: Evans
authors: Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
authors: Colbi
authors: C
authors: Gemmell
authors: Department of Marine Science, University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute, Port Aransas, TX 78373, United States.
authors: Tracy
authors: T
authors: Harvey
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, United States.
authors: Maryam
authors: M
authors: Jalali
authors: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States.
authors: Tagbo H R
authors: TH
authors: Niepa
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico; D059392:Petroleum Pollution / Q000032:analysis* / Q000266:history; D012106:Research / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Deepwater Horizon; Dispersant; Exxon Valdez; Literature review; Oil spill; Public health