Review of the usage of LUCAS soil data for soil modeling and mapping via bibliometric analysis

A centuries-long research area continues to develop on determining diversity in the heterogeneous environment in which the soil is inherently located. As a result of open data sharing, accessible datasets can be easily used by the scientific community and can be of great benefit to the soil science community and policy stakeholders and improve the learning process for early career researchers. Through bibliometric analysis, this study aims to evaluate the scientific outputs obtained from Web of Science databases produced using the Land Use and Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS) soil module dataset between 2000 and 2022. A search was made using the words “LUCAS”, “Soil”, and “European” in the title/abstract/keywords field, and over 100 studies have been found and evaluated. Preliminary results showed that the dataset had been used with interest in the scientific community since the first open access date of 2013 in around 100 peer-review papers. LUCAS has been expanding over the years, and international integration has increased. As a result of bibliometric analysis, many colleagues produced scientific outputs using the LUCAS datasets. Review analysis provides insights into the future use of LUCAS, an open-access dataset, in the scientific community. Results enable academics in this field to give references and quick access to regional soil data information on the principal physical, chemical and selected biological properties.