3.1.3. Author Contribution Analysis

According to the statistics, 8191 authors (without debugging repetitions of authors' names) have contributed to the increasing scientific knowledge about MPs. Table 2 lists the top 10 influential authors, ranked by the criteria of NSC on MPs issues, as well as their institution (the latest one), country, TNP, STC, and the number of ESI highly cited papers (NEHC). These data were manually debugged to improve the quality of analysis, as a single author may have different forms of abbreviations but with separately counted articles. Half of these influential authors are from European countries, which is in agreement with the known active participation of European countries in MPs-related research. Thompson, R.C. from England was the most productive and influential author, as his 48 publications were cited 11,617 times, and half of his publications were listed as ESI highly cited papers. Galloway, T.S. and Cole, M., from the University of Exeter, England, ranked second and fourth, respectively, with the ratio NEHC/TNP > 55%. Shi, H.H., who ranked ninth, was the most active MPs researcher in China, and 50% of his publications were included as ESI highly cited papers. Galgani, F.; Koelmans, A.A.; Thiel, M.; Rochman, C.M.; Shim, W.J. and Costa, M.F. also performed well with their MPs-related research, and contributed information about the MPs distribution in their regional marine environments, MPs analytical methods, hazardous chemical sorption of MPs, and release of MPs. These scholars were all listed as ESI highly cited researchers in the Ecology/Environment field, which indicated that their articles had significant influence on subsequent research.

**Table 2.** The top 10 authors for MPs research ranked by NSC; values for other criteria are given as well.


<sup>1</sup> NEHC: Number of ESI highly cited papers; <sup>2</sup> Ifremer: Institut Français de Recherche pour I'Exploitation de la Mer; <sup>3</sup> KIOST: Korea Institute of Ocean Science Technology.
