Lectins, the carbohydrate binding proteins, have emerged as indispensable biological tools in the last decade. Research contibutions covering the period 1954–1982 on different aspects of lectins were collected since the introduction of the term ‘Lectin’ in 1954. In the present communication we have made a bibliometric analysis of the growth of the literature on lectins, the trend of authorship of papers on lectins, and scattering phenomena. We have also identified the main international channels of communication of the results of lectin research.