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. 2021 Dec 20;91(Suplemento COVID):001-011.
doi: 10.24875/ACM.20000370.

The 2020 research pandemic: A bibliometric analysis of publications on COVID-19 and their scientific impact during the first months

Carlos E Diéguez-Campa  1 , Ivan Pérez-Neri  2 , Gustavo Reyes-Terán  3 , Iliana A Flores-Apodaca  4 , Jorge Castillo-Ledón-Pretelini  5 , Omar Mercado-Bautista  6 , Ricardo Álvarez-Santana  7 , Marco A Zenteno  8 , Brigham Bowles  9 , Ángel Lee  3
Affiliations

The 2020 research pandemic: A bibliometric analysis of publications on COVID-19 and their scientific impact during the first months

Carlos E Diéguez-Campa et al. Arch Cardiol Mex. .

Abstract
in English, Spanish

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has created a landslide of publications, from different sources and unequal impact. We considered that the first 3 months are crucial to understand how knowledge has been generated by performing a bibliometric analysis, including the citations to these articles to guide researchers in exploring this field, and to evaluate the relationship between confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths with the number of papers per country.

Methods: Scientific publications were obtained from PubMed (January-March 2020) and their citations during the first 6 months retrieved from the Scopus database. An analysis of the number of papers by country, approach (type and category of publication), and impact was made. A multiple linear regression model was implemented to analyze the correlation between the number of publications and confirmed cases and deaths.

Results: A total of 2,530 publications were analyzed with 59,104 citations (23.4 citations/article), written by authors from 67 countries. China was the country with more publications (988, 39%) and more citations (36,416, 63%) followed by the United States with 423 articles (16.7%) and 7,458 citations (12.6%). The coauthorship network identified 10,756 authors. According to the multivariate analysis, both confirmed cases and deaths were significantly correlated with the number of publications per country (corrected by population size and gross domestic product).

Conclusion: The correlation with the number of publications suggests that cases and deaths had some impact on the medical literature, reflecting how rapidly the scientific community has been on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19.

Antecedentes:: La pandemia de COVID-19 ha desatado una avalancha de publicaciones, con diferentes fuentes y de impacto desigual. Consideramos que los primeros tres meses son cruciales para comprender cómo se ha generado el conocimiento mediante la realización de un análisis bibliométrico, incluyendo las citas a estos artículos para guiar a los investigadores en la exploración de este campo y evaluar la relación entre los casos confirmados de COVID-19, y las muertes con el número de artículos por país.

Métodos:: Realizamos un análisis del número de artículos de PubMed (enero-marzo) por país, enfoque, e impacto (citas de Scopus durante los primeros seis meses). Se implementó regresión lineal múltiple para analizar la correlación entre el número de publicaciones y los casos y muertes confirmados.

Resultados:: Se analizaron un total de 2,530 publicaciones con 59104 citas (23,4 citas/artículo), escritas por autores de 67 países. China fue el país con más publicaciones (988, 39%) y más citas (36,416, 63%), seguido de Estados Unidos con 423 artículos (16.7%) y 7,458 citas (12.6%). La red de coautoría identificó a 10,756 autores. Según el análisis multivariado, tanto los casos confirmados como las defunciones se correlacionaron significativamente con el número de publicaciones por país (corregido por el tamaño de la población y el producto interno bruto).

Conclusión:: La correlación sugiere que los casos y muertes tuvieron un impacto en la literatura médica, esto refleja la prontitud con que la comunidad científica ha estado en el frente de batalla contra COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Coronavirus; Pandemic; Bibliometrics.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the present research has not been financed by any specific bursary given by the public sector, commercial enterprise, or no profit. There were no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A and B: total number of publications per country (detail top 20). Total number of citations per country (detail top 20).
Figure 2
Figure 2
A: Category of publications in countries with most publications (top 20). B: Type of article in countries with most publications (top 20).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Coauthorship map for the largest set of linked authors (n = 4724).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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