Thematic Trends of Scientific Productions Related to Covid-19 in the Fields of Humanities and Social Sciences: A Comparison of Iran and Five Leading Continental Countries

 The purpose of the present study is to compare the thematic trends of scientific productions related to Covid 19 in the fields of humanities and social sciences in Iran and the leading countries of the five continents based on the studies of Web of Science. 

 The present scientometric research has a descriptive-analytical interdisciplinary approach through social network and co-word analysis techniques which is one of the methods of content analysis. Bibexecl, Gephi, and SPSS software were used to analyze the data, and VosViewer software was used to draw thematic clusters.

 The United States, England, China, Australia, and South Africa are the leading countries. Iran ranks 37th in the world and 13th in Asia. Co-word clustering in US studies consisted of 6 clusters, in Chinese and South African studies, 7 clusters, in British studies, 8 clusters, in Australian and Iranian studies 10 clusters. The clusters of "China and Australia", "The UK, and the United States" have thematic overlap, however, there are more clusters in the studies of Australia and Iran. There is a positive and significant relationship between the amounts of scientific production related to Covid 19 in humanities and social sciences and the prevalence of the disease (number of patients) in Iran and the leading countries. There was no significant difference between countries in terms of the number of citations received; The number of scientific productions of countries in the fields of humanities and social sciences and health is not significantly different from each other; There is a positive and significant relationship between the rate of scientific production of Covid 19 in the fields of humanities and social sciences and the prevalence of the disease (number of patients) in Iran and leading countries.

 Based on the results, the emergence of Covid-19 as an important health and social issue has made the management of various economic, social, cultural, and political complications inevitable. It is in this direction that in the results of this research, the repetition of concepts such as empowerment, participation, governance, management, and crisis management, etc. can be seen. This shows the existence of new thinking and policies in the post-coronavirus era to control and contain such a crisis. Also, according to the results of the research, "depression, mental health, risk, social media, crisis management, influence" are frequent in Chinese studies from the Asian continent. The most centrality of degree, closeness, and betweenness is related to the concept of "resilience". In England, from the European continent, "higher education, online learning, management, innovation, mental health, depression, society, engagement, motivation, knowledge" are the most important trends of researchers. The most centrality of the degree, closeness, and betweenness is related to the keywords "crisis and motivation". In the United States of America, "depression, stress, social support, education, participation, influence, management, leadership, employment, self-education, distance education, and science" are more common and the most important subject tendencies of researchers in this field. The most centrality of the degree, closeness, and intermediateness is related to the keyword "distance education". The most centrality of the degree, closeness, and intermediation is "distance education". "Social media, education, literacy, society, satisfaction, influence, mental health, poverty, governance, and humanities" are frequent in South African studies from the African continent and constitute the most important intellectual tendencies of researchers in this field; The most centrality of degree, closeness, and intermediateness is "higher education and poverty". In the studies of Australia from the Oceania continent, "education, technology, tourism, management, science, culture, social work, mental health, depression, anxiety, neoliberalism" are frequent and important and are the most important trends of researchers; The most centrality of degree, closeness and intermediateness is related to "crisis and gender". In Iranian studies, "depression, influence, behavior, perception of risk" have a central place among the most important tendencies of researchers; In the studies of this country, the most centrality of degree, closeness, and intermediateness is related to the keyword "simulation". In this way, in the subject area under discussion, there are also differences in the subject tendencies between countries. However, in a general look at the results of the cluster analysis of the studied countries, it can be said that the clusters of the countries of China and Australia with topics such as "technology and media, management and mental health" and the clusters of the countries of England and the United States with topics such as "depression, society, education, participation, management, online learning, and science and knowledge" have thematic overlap.