Holistic Analysis of Coronavirus Literature: A Scientometric Study of the Global Publications Relevant to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), MERS-CoV (MERS) and SARS-CoV (SARS)

Abstract

Objective:In late December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia caused by an unknown pathogen was reported from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The pathogen has been identified as a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and the disease has been named as COVID-19. The objective of this study to perform the first holistic scientometric evaluation of coronavirus publications.Methods:Our main source for this study was Web of Science Collection database. All items published between 1980 and 2019 were included. A distribution map of global production in coronavirus literature and scientometric networks were generated.Results:The USA, China, Germany the UK and Netherlands were the most productive countries. Publications in coronavirus literature have been produced from almost every country in the world, except for some countries in Asia and Africa.Conclusion:While in 1980s the USA and developed countries from Europe were major source countries and the virus was identified only as an animal disease in the literature and its biological and genetic structure was investigated, in the 2000s, China became a major contributor of coronavirus literature because the SARS outbreak originated from southern China. Almost all most cited publications in this period are related to SARS and ACE2 protein. In 2010s. © 2020 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.