Bibliometric Analysis of Early COVID-19 Research: The Top 50 Cited Papers

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly evolving with the number of cases exponentially rising. The research scientific community has reacted promptly as evidenced by an outstanding number of COVID-19 related publications. As the number of scientific publications rapidly rises, there is a need to dissect the factors that lead to highly impactful publications. To that end, the present paper summarizes the characteristics of the top 50 cited COVID-19-related publications that emerged early during the pandemic. Methods: A systematic search of the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar was performed, using keywords related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-19. Two independent authors reviewed all the search results, screening for the top 50 cited COVID-19-related articles. Inclusion criteria comprised any publication on COVID-19 or the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Data extracted included the type of study, journal, number of citations, number of authors, country of publication, and study content. Results: As of May 29th, the top 50 cited articles were cited 63849 times during the last 4 months. On average, 14 authors contributed to each publication. Over half of the identified articles were published in only 3 journals. Furthermore, 42% and 26% of the identified articles were retrospective case series and correspondence/viewpoints, respectively, while only 1 article was a randomized controlled trial. In terms of content, almost half (48%) of the identified publications reported clinical/radiological findings while only 7 out of the 50 articles investigated potential treatments. Conclusion: By highlighting the characteristics of the top 50 cited COVID-19-related articles, the authors hope to disseminate information that could assist researchers to identify the important topics, study characteristics, and gaps in the literature.

COVID-19 research progress: Bibliometrics and visualization analysis

“…These papers were cited 63 849 times until May 29, 2020. Type of study, journal, number of citations, number of authors, country of publication, and study content were other characteristics studied ( 26 ). Another paper analyzing COVID-19 research activity concluded that due to the pandemic and the high rate of infectivity, there is a global need for more relevant research that can help to be more informed about the clinical and pathogenic characteristics of this disease ( 27 ).…”

Global research trends in COVID-19 with MRI and PET/CT: a scoping review with bibliometric and network analyses

“…The average citation per journal was 28.53; it was above the number of 23.4 citations per article, reported by a study of 2530 publications about scientific impact in the first months of COVID-19 [ 67 ]. These numbers are pretty below a previous report of the top-50 cited COVID-19 related articles in which 18% of articles received more than 2000 citations; also, the general topic of COVID-19 concentrated half of the top-50 cited publications in only three journals (The Lancet, NEJM, and JAMA) [ 68 ]. The most cited journal in our study (Int J Infect Dis) received 674 citations; this number is below the 1192 cites received by the Am J Emergency Medicine in a study that reported top emergency medicine journals in terms of COVID-19 publications in 2020 [ 69 ].…”

“…This trend has also evolved to assess the impact of specific medical topics like achalasia [ 1 ], diverse techniques like robotic surgery [ 78 ], and of course, the early impact of COVID-19 [ 64 , 68 ]. However, to the best of our knowledge, there was no previous publication of MRI and PET/CT research trends in COVID patients.…”

Impact of Coronavirus Outbreaks on Science and Society: Insights from Temporal Bibliometry of SARS and COVID-19

“…Apart from taking a social perspective, we also touch upon limitations, as well as aspects of bibliometry that are generally not explored in typical studies in this area. For example, several previous works on bibliometric investigations into the pandemic have explored papers originating from specific countries or languages [ 24 , 25 ], or the pandemic from a subject specific perspective [ 26 ], or the exploration of the top N papers [ 27 ]. More general pandemic-related investigations have highlighted aspects such as the most productive authors, the most cited papers, the value of pre-prints, etc.…”