Spotlight on Early COVID-19 Research Productivity: A 1-Year Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), one of the most serious public health crises in over a century, has led to an unprecedented surge of publications across all areas of knowledge. This study assessed the early research productivity on COVID-19 in terms of vaccination, diagnosis, treatment, symptoms, risk factors, nutrition, and economy. The Scopus database was searched between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 to initially examine the research productivity on COVID-19, as measured by total publications by the 20 highest-ranked countries according to gross domestic product. The literature search was then refined, and research productivity was assessed across seven major research domains related to COVID-19: vaccination, diagnosis, treatment, symptoms, risk factors, nutrition, and economy. The initial literature search yielded 53,348 publications. Among these, 27,801 publications involved authorship from a single country and 22,119 publications involved authorship from multiple countries. Overall, the United States was the most productive country (n = 13,491), with one and a half times or more publications than any other country, on COVID-19 and the selected domains related to it. However, following adjustment for population size, gross domestic product, and expenditure for research and development, countries of emerging economies such as India along countries of lower population density such as Switzerland, Indonesia, and Turkey exhibited higher research productivity. The surge of COVID-19 publications in such a short period of time underlines the capacity of the scientific community to respond against a global health emergency; however where future research priorities and resource distribution should be placed on the respective thematic fields at an international level, warrants further investigation.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Biomedical Publications and Their Citation Frequency

“…The Scopus database search for the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, revealed that, among the 20 highest-ranked countries by the gross domestic product, the United States of America was the most productive country (n = 13,491) in the COVID-19 and COVID-19-related domains, with one and a half times or more publications than any other country. 5 …”

A Scientometric Study to a Critical Review on Promising Anticancer and Neuroprotective Compounds: Citrus Flavonoids

“…The scientometric methods were first applied to obtain a holistic and comprehensive view based on the published studies on citrus flavonoids, which is an application of mathematical and statistical methods to perform retrospective reviews, calculate correlations in publication data, elucidate current research progress, and predict research directions [ 8 ]. Scientometric methods have played an important role in bone disease research [ 9 ], hotspots of exercise for intervening diabetes [ 10 ], COVID-19 research [ 11 ], and exosome studies [ 12 ]. The numerous published articles were summarized through the scientometric methods for providing rich reference information for researchers in need based on keywords, highlights, and important research-related information.…”

The impact of COVID-19 on global health journals: an analysis of impact factor and publication trends

“…From 1 January to 31 December 2020, a total of 53 348 publications from Scopus database focused on seven major research domains related to COVID-19: vaccination, diagnosis, treatment, symptoms, risk factors, nutrition and economy. 9 A subsequent explosion of related international research collaboration and articles was observed as well in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. 10 As of 28 June 2022, a total of 75 724 publications using ‘COVID-19’ and ‘medical research’ as keywords in all fields were extracted from Web of Science (WoS) database.…”