The aim of the research is the bibliometric analysis of research on COVID-19 and tourism in order to detect research lines and gaps, the main authors, the countries with the highest number of publications, the most analysed study areas, the journals with the most number of publications and the articles with the highest number of citations. The Web of Science (WOS) database was used to extract the publications and the VOSviewer software was used to represent the data analysed. The keywords used resulted in 1792 publications that were subjected to a filtering process to avoid introducing articles that did not meet the inclusion criteria. Finally, the analysis was composed by 921 publications. The analysis locates a new line of research that visualizes the crisis as an opportunity to propel a new, more sustainable tourism. Tourist perception and the risk of transmission, together with the analysis of measures and policies are other of the most researched topics. China is the country with the most articles on COVID-19 and tourism according to the author’s main affiliation, as well as being the most analysed area of study. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first article to carry out a bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 and tourism publications.

The article carries out a systematic literature review on the social impact of research in all fields of study. To this end, this study has compiled the publications on the subject using the Web of Science database, and the most relevant terms have been mapped using the VOSviewer tool. The aim of the article is to advance and provide knowledge on the key aspects to be taken into account for research to generate social benefits and to analyse the main methods and instruments used to assess the social impact of research. At the same time, this article serves as a point of reflection to raise awareness, on a recent topic, of the limitations that arise in evaluation and research gaps that can be addressed in future research. This line of research has been in existence for just over 10 years. International programmes, such as Horizon Europe, highlight the impact channels and, in the field of social sciences, specific methodologies such as communicative communication are being developed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the subject from a global point of view, without specifying the field of study, providing a conceptual map of the subject.