Inorganic carbon is overlooked in global soil carbon research: A bibliometric analysis

•This study quantified global soil C research trends and the proportional focus on SOC and SIC pools.•Soil inorganic C is an overlooked pool with only 4% share in global soil C research.•Approximately 40% of the soil C research was dedicated to climate change.•Soil C research is concentrated in few countries with 70% research contributed by 9 countries.•It is imperative to expand research focus on SIC to gain a comprehensive understanding of global C cycle. Soils are a major player in the global carbon (C) cycle and climate change by functioning as a sink or a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The largest terrestrial C reservoir in soils comprises two main pools: organic (SOC) and inorganic C (SIC), each having distinct fates and functions but with a large disparity in global research attention. This study quantified global soil C research trends and the proportional focus on SOC and SIC pools based on a bibliometric analysis and raise the importance of SIC pools fully underrepresented in research, applications, and modeling. Studies on soil C pools started in 1905 and has produced over 47,000 publications (>1.7 million citations). Although the global C stocks down to 2 m depth are nearly the same for SOC and SIC, the research has dominantly examined SOC (>96 % of publications and citations) with a minimal share on SIC (