Citation Analysis of COVID-19 Research in the Scopus Citation Database

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease with rapid transmission that affects most countries. The aim of the present study was to analyze the citations of COVID-19 research in the Scopus citation database from 2019 to 2021.

This applies study was conducted with a scientometric approach. The research population was 4269 research articles published in the field of COVID-19 during 2019-2021. VOSviewer, UCINET, and Excel were used to map and analyze the citation network.

In the Scopus database, the most frequently cited articles at COVID-19 related to China. The United States had the largest number of articles in this field assigned to COVID-19 with 467 articles. Li Y, Li X, and Wang J scored the highest in rank centrality, closeness index, and intermediate index, respectively. Iranian researchers have had the most international collaboration with the countries of North America, Europe, and China.

The countries of America and China have contributed the most in this field in terms of both article production and citations. Due to the co-authorship with these countries, Iran is also in the first and best cluster in the world.