A Review of COVID-19 Scientific Publications by Iranian Researchers in 2020: A Scientometrics Study

Abstract

Aims: The Covid-19 epidemy has become a serious threat and challenge to all people of the world. Due to the new and unknown nature of this disease, many scientific products have been published in this field in recent months. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to review the COVID-19 scientific publications by Iranian researchers in 2020 to identify the current situation. Materials & Methods: This applied research was carried out using scientometric methods and an analytical approach. All Covid-19 scientific publications by Iranian researchers were extracted from the Scopus citation database between January 2020 and January 2021, using an appropriate search strategy. Excel and VOSViewer software were used for analysis. Findings: In 2020, 2108 COVID-19 scientific publications have been published in the Scopus citation database. 45.35% of publications are related to articles, 24.09% are related to letters, 22.53% are related to review and other types of publications. The highest level of international cooperation of Iranian researchers has been with researchers from the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom. The most publications have been in the fields of medicine, immunology and microbiology and biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology. Also, the main thematic clusters of these publications have included research related to testing and diagnosis, treatment, prevention and health. Conclusion: The results of the present study show the one-year status of the COVID-19 scientific publications in Iran to assist and guide researchers and policymakers. It has also identified various aspects of research in this field in Iran