The impact of Covid-19 on the scientific production spread: a five-month bibliometric report of the worldwide research community

Felice Lorusso¹, Francesco Inchingolo², Antonio Scarano^{3, *}

¹Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy - 

²Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70121 Bari, Italy - ³Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Introduction: The recent COVID-19 pandemic has gained recently a deep increasing of research interest in all fields of the human knowledge due to prevention of the Sars-Cov-2 infection and disease treatment The present investigation evaluated the topic publications and the citation network analysis during the early phases of COVID-19 pandemic spread.

Methods: the Boolean search was performed according to the Pubmed Mesh terms by by Scopus Elsevier database. The papers, co-authors, number of citations obtained and scientific journals were recorded. 

Results: a total of 164 scientific journals were assessed in the present research with a mean impact factor value of 4.612±8.705 (range: 70.67-0; median: 2,687, Q1: 0,701; Q3: 4,928). 

Conclusions: The studies selected showed The bibliometric research showed an early representation of the research orientation of the research activity about COVID 19. The most represented scientific fields concerned with healthcare and medicine, while for the social and economic fields are gaining interests due to the pandemic spread.