Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that was declared as a pandemic has been the main subject of research all over the world. Especially studies on COVID-19 vaccines has become a hope for everyone. In this study, we aimed to analyse entire literature through Web of Science© Core Collection Database and reveal the current status of COVID-19 vaccine literature. We entered the keywords “COVID-19” and “vaccine” to Web of Science© Core Collection Database on January 20, 2021. Web of Science categories, document types, organizations, funding agencies, authors, journals, countries, languages, study fields, were investigated. A total of 2,765 publications with 24,202 citations times were involved into the study. Majority of the publications were original articles. Immunology, General Internal Medicine and Experimental Medicine Research were the top categories. Top productive Universities were Harvard University, University of California System and University of London. Dhama K. had the highest number of publications followed by Mahase E. and Baric RS. Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics had published the highest number of publications. Majority of the publications were written in English. The United States of America was the most productive country followed by China and India. Research in vaccines is a growing field and is an essential component in the fight against COVID-19. Detailed analyses on vaccine publications may help researchers determine the future perspective.

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BACKGROUND: Since the date of declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic by the World Health Organization (March 11, 2020), vaccine studies have been initiated. In this article, we aimed to investigate highly cited articles on vaccines and guide researchers for future studies. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Publications with 6 or more citations (highly cited publications) were extracted from Web of Science (WoS) database. These publications were investigated according to the number of citations, language, publication year, WoS categories, publication types, organizations involved, authors, countries and research areas. Additionally, top 20 articles were investigated in detail. RESULTS: A total of 126 publications were determined. When WoS categories were investigated, 18 pertained to immunology (14.2 %), 17 to biochemistry (13.4 %) and 17 to multidisciplinary sciences (13.4 %). There were three types of publications, namely 80 original articles (63.4 %), 46 reviews (36.5 %) and 11 early access publications (8.7 %). Top universities were Harvard University (n = 9, 7.1 %), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (n=7, 5.5 %) and University of California system (n = 7, 5.5 %). Top authors were Qin CF with 4 articles (3.1 %), Wang L with 4 articles (3.1 %) and Baric RS with 3 articles (2.3 %). Top journals with the highest number of publications were Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics (n = 8, 6.3 %), Nature (n=8, 6.3 %) and Science (n = 6, 4.7 %). Top countries were the United States of America (USA) with 45 articles (35.7 %), People's Republic of China with 44 articles (34.9 %), and India with 15 articles (11.9 %). Research areas of the publications were science technology other topics (n = 21, 16.6 %), immunology (n = 18, 14.2 %) and pharmacology (n = 18, 14.2 %). CONCLUSION: Vaccine studies play a pivotal role in the warfare against COVID-19. Our results revealed that under the leadership of the USA, China and India, the number of scientists focusing on vaccines is increasing and gratifying results are obtained from vaccine studies (Tab. 3, Ref. 40).