A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 publications in the ten psychology-related Web of Science categories in the social science citation index

Analyzing the bibliometrics of brain-gut axis and Parkinson's disease

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD), characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons, is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. Recent research has revealed a significant connection between gut microbiota and PD. To gain insight into research interests, disciplinary contexts, and potential future directions, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted on the brain-gut axis and PD literature published between 2014 and 2023.

Methods

Relevant literature records were gathered from the Web of Science Core Collection on August 11, 2023. The data were then analyzed by Biblioshiny R packages and VOSviewer (version 1.6.19).

Results

The dataset revealed an upward trend in annual scientific publications on the brain-gut axis and PD, with an annual growth rate of 50.24%. China, the United States, and Italy were the top three most productive countries/regions. The journal "International Journal Of Molecular Sciences" published the most articles, while "Movement Disorders" received the highest number of citations. Professor Keshavarzian A emerged as the most prolific author, while Professor Scheperjans F held the highest h-index. Keyword analysis highlighted "alpha-synuclein" as the most frequent term, with "mouse model," "inflammation," and "risk" as emerging research topics. Additionally, "central nervous system" and "intestinal bacterial overgrowth" attracted increasing attention.

Conclusion

This study examined current trends and hotspots in the bibliometric landscape of the brain-gut axis and PD research. Future research directions should explore the functional and metabolic activities of gut microbiota. Additionally, transitioning from observational to interventional study designs offers the potential for personalized interventions and disease prediction. These findings can guide researchers in navigating the latest developments and shaping the future directions of this field.

Global trends of pyrolysis research: a bibliometric analysis

Pyrolysis has become an interesting waste valorization method leading to an increasing number of research studies in this field in the last decade. The present study aims to provide a comprehensive knowledge map of scientific production in pyrolysis, discuss the current state of research, and identify the main research hotspots and trends in recent years. The systematic review, supported by analysis of countries and institutions, keyword co-occurrence analysis, analysis of keyword trends, journal analysis, and article impact, was carried out on 6234 journal articles from the Science Citation Index Expanded database of the Web of Science Core Collection. As a result, four main research hotspots were identified: 1) characterization techniques and pyrolysis kinetic models, 2) biochar production and its main applications, 3) bio-oil production and catalytic pyrolysis, and 4) co-pyrolysis, which has become a consolidated research hotspot since 2018. Additionally, the main challenges and opportunities for future research have been identified, such as 1) the development of multi-step kinetic models for studying complex wastes, 2) the integration of biochar into other valorization processes, such as anaerobic digestion, and 3) the development of catalytic hydropyrolysis for the valorization of organic waste. This bibliometric analysis provides a visualization of the current context and future trends in pyrolysis, facilitating future collaborative research and knowledge exchange.

COVID-19 Research in Communication Journals: A Structural Topic Modeling-Assisted Bibliometric Analysis

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of research on COVID-19 health communication. We reviewed and analyzed 1,851 articles published in 170 peer-reviewed communication journals between January 2020 and November 2022, to identify key bibliometric information and major research topics in this rapidly expanding field of research. The distribution of countries indicates that the United States is the most productive country, and researchers from Spain, China and the United Kingdom also play an important role. Health Communication is the most influential journal in terms of research productivity and impact. The analysis of highly cited references demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of this research field. The topics generated by structural topic modeling show that scholars have responded to a variety of issues in COVID-19 communication, encompassing different levels of health communication, the effects of information dissemination, the impact on the general public as well as vulnerable populations, health preventive behaviors and communication technologies. This study aims to enhance researchers' understanding of the current state of this research field and provide insights for future studies.

COVID research across the social sciences in 2020: a bibliometric approach

Research on the COVID-19 pandemic has produced an incredible volume of social science research. To explore the initial areas of COVID-19 scholarship, the following study uses bibliometric co-citation network analysis on data from Clarivate's Web of Science database to analyze 3327 peer-reviewed studies published during the first year of the pandemic and their 107,396 shared references. Findings indicate nine distinct disciplinary research clusters centered around a single medical core of COVID-19 pandemic research. Topics ranging from tourism collapse, fear scales, financial contagion, health surveillance, shifts in crime rates, quarantine psychology, and collective trauma among others are found to have emerged in this initial phase of research as covid spread across the world. A corresponding infodemic highlights early communication challenges and a broader need to thwart misinformation. As this body of work continues to grow across the social sciences, key intersections, shared themes, and long-term implications of this historic event are brought into view.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses on major depressive disorder: a bibliometric perspective

Background

There is a vast amount of evidence-based medicine research on the major depressive disorder (MDD) available in the literature, however, no studies on the overall performance, productivity and impact of such research have been published to date. This study explored and mapped the research outputs of MDD-related systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SR/MA) from a bibliometric perspective.

Methods

Relevant data were retrieved with search terms on MDD, systematic review and meta-analysis.

Results

A total of 4,870 papers with 365,402 citations published from 1983 to 2022 were included in the analysis. The publication output has grown steadily over time with the most publications originating from the USA (1,020; 20.94%), the UK (516; 10.60%) and China (448; 9.20%). The research collaborations between countries were most frequent between the USA and UK (266; 5.46%). Journal of Affective Disorders (379; 7.78%) was the most productive journal, while Cuijpers P was the most productive author (121; 2.48%), and University of Toronto (569; 11.78%) was the most productive institution. The top 10 most cited articles on MDD-related SR/MA had citations ranging from 1,806 to 3,448. The high-frequency keywords were mainly clustered into four themes, including psychiatric comorbidities, clinical trials, treatment, and brain stimulation in MDD.

Conclusion

The rapid increase in the number of SR/MA of MDD in recent years highlights the importance of this research field. Psychiatric comorbidities, clinical interventions, and treatment of MDD have been identified as hot topics, while biological mechanisms in MDD are likely to be an emerging research priority.

Postural deformities in Parkinson's disease: A bibliometric analysis based on web of science

Objective

Postural deformities are common debilitating conditions during the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the underlying pathophysiology and optimal treatment strategy are unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify primary research fields, important achievements and emerging trends in postural deformities in PD.

Methods

Web of Science Core Collection database was searched to retrieve all literature related to postural deformities in PD over the past 20 years. Data such as annual numbers of publications, countries of origin, publication journals, cooperation between countries, citation index and keywords were retrieved from the selected publications. Bibliometrix Package in R software were used for bibliometric analysis and visualization.

Results

In total, 211 publications that met the criteria were collected. Analyses had shown that the annual numbers of publications increased gradually with fluctuations. Japan was the most prolific country (n = 59). Italy participated in international cooperation the most frequently. Parkinsonism & related disorders (n = 25) took a prominent lead among all journals, and the most productive institution in this area was University of Verona (n = 27). The most local cited author was Tinazzi Michele. According to the thematic map, "scoliosis", "fusion", and "balance" have rapidly become research hot spots in related fields.

Conclusions

Articles pertaining to postural deformities in PD are still being published, in which the etiology is a combination of peripheral plus central involvement. Treatment approaches include rehabilitative exercises, oral medication, botulinum toxin injection, deep brain stimulation and spine surgery, which is getting current attention and would be a hot topic of future research.

Olfactory and Gustatory Dysfunction in COVID-19: A Global Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis

OBJECTIVES

Coronavirus illness (COVID-19) has been found to alter infected people's sense of smell and taste. However, the pathobiology of this virus is not yet known. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the influence of COVID-19 infection on olfactory and gustatory processes. Therefore, we use bibliometric analysis on COVID-19 and olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction publications to provide studies perspective.

METHODS

A bibliometric literature search was performed in the Scopus database. The number and type of publications, countries for publications, institutional sources for publications, journals for publications, citation patterns, and funding agencies were analyzed using Microsoft Excel or VOSviewer. In addition, the VOSviewer 1.6.17 software was used to analyze and visualize hotspots and collaboration patterns between countries.

RESULTS

Scopus has published 187 088 documents for COVID-19 in all study fields at the time of data collection (July 26, 2021). A total of 1740 documents related to olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction were recovered. The countries most relevant by the number of publications were the United States (n = 362, 20.80%), Italy (n = 255, 14.66%), and the United Kingdom (n = 173, 9.94%). By analyzing the terms in the titles and abstracts, we identified 2 clusters related to olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction research, which are "diagnosis and test methods" and "prognosis and complications of the disease."

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first bibliometric analysis of publications related to COVID-19 and olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction. This study provides academics and researchers with useful information on the publishing patterns of the most influential publications on COVID-19 and olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction. Olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunction as indices of suspicion for the empirical diagnosis of coronavirus infection is a new hotspot in this field.

Economic expectations and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: a one-year longitudinal evaluation on Italian university students

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced an extensive aggravation of people's anxiety level. Different policies aimed at fighting the spread of the virus could affect anxiety in various ways. We built an ad hoc web-based survey, administered to the student population of three Italian universities at the beginning of the pandemic and at one year's distance, to collect information on retrospective and current anxiety levels and the underlining reasons. The survey also included questions concerning sociodemographic, economic, labor, lifestyle, academic career, and on-line teaching features, which prevents students from identifying the main survey topic to be anxiety. This research aims at assessing the change in anxiety levels between the analyzed periods and the main determinants of such change, focusing on students' economic expectancies. Results from a Poisson regression model show that anxiety has increased compared to both the pre-pandemic level and the one quantified during the first lockdown. This increase is revealed to be mostly driven by economic and career-related uncertainties, rather than by job loss and proximity to COVID-19. Thus, policymakers should take action to provide certainties both in terms of economic prospects and reopening strategies, especially to avoid that the resulting increase in anxiety translates into an amplified suicide risk.

Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Research and the Changing International Collaboration Structure

Research in Information Science and interdisciplinary areas suggested the formation of a growing network of international research collaboration. The massive transmission of COVID-19 worldwide especially after the identification of the Omicron variant could fundamentally alter the factors shaping the network's development. This study employs network analysis methods to analyze the structure of the COVID-19 research collaboration from 2020 to 2022, using two major academic publication databases and the VOSviewer software. A novel temporal view is added by examining the dynamic changes of the network, and a fractional counting method is adopted as methodological improvements to previous research. Analysis reveals that the COVID-19 research network structure has undergone substantial changes over time, as collaborating countries and regions form and re-form new clusters. Transformations in the network can be partly explained by key developments in the pandemic and other social-political events. China as one of the largest pivots in the network formed a relatively distinct cluster, with potential to develop a larger Asia-Pacific collaboration cluster based on its research impact.

Bibliometric visualisation of industrial and organisational psychology during COVID-19 pandemic: Insight for future research

Orientation

Industrial and organisational psychology (IOP) researchers have shown their contribution to solving COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace through the enormous number of studies.

Research purpose

This study intended to map IOP research related to the COVID-19 crisis to provide the research issues that have emerged and potential for future research.

Motivation for the study

All the IOP levels (worker, team and organisation) were impacted by COVID-19, and they continuously change. Researchers must be careful in directing their research and avoid focusing on certain levels or problems.

Research approach/design and method

A bibliometric visualisation analysis method was adopted in this study.

Main findings

The bibliometric results showed that the prominent keywords in IOP research-related COVID-19 are ‘human(s)’, ‘COVID-19’, keywords related to subject characteristics and mental health. Six clusters on the map showed the prominent themes: mental health, health care workers as the research subject, specific workplace issues, digital technology, methodologies used, and country. Furthermore, in every cluster, the depth overview of study results is presented. The top issues were at the worker-level, while the organisational-level issues gained limited attention.

Practical/managerial implications

For practitioners and managers, this study provides a complete picture of emerging issues during COVID-19 crisis ranging from causes, risk factors and solutions. For researchers, this study can provide insight for further research.

Contribution/value-add

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the IOP issues related-COVID-19 that will be beneficial as the basis for policymaking and recommendations for future potential areas.

Current Trends and Research Hotspots in Pancreatic Stellate Cells: A Bibliometric Study

Background

Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) play crucial roles in acute/chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. In this study, bibliometric analysis was used to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the literature related to PSCs from 1998-2021 to summarize the current trends and research topics in this field.

Methods

Relevant literature data were downloaded from the Science Citation Index Expanded Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) on April 07, 2021, using Clarivate Analytics. Biblioshiny R packages, VOSviewer, Citespace, BICOMB, gCLUTO, and the Online Analysis Platform of Literature Metrology (http://bibliometric.com) were used to analyze the manually selected data.

Results

A total of 958 relevant studies published in 48 countries or regions were identified. The United States of America (USA) had the highest number of publications, followed by the People's Republic of China, Germany, and Japan. Tohoku University (Japan), the University of New South Wales (Australia), the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA), Technical University of Munich (Germany), and University of Rostock (Germany) were the top five institutions with most publications. Nine major clusters were generated using reference co-citation analysis. Keyword burst detection revealed that progression (2016-2021), microenvironment (2016-2021), and tumor microenvironment (2017-2021) were the current frontier keywords. Biclustering analysis identified five research hotspots in the field of PSCs during 1998-2021.

Conclusion

In this study, a scientometric analysis of 958 original documents related to PSCs showed that the research topics of these studies are likely in the transition from acute/chronic pancreatitis to pancreatic cancer. The current research trends regarding PSCs are related to pancreatic cancer, such as tumor microenvironment. This study summarizes five research hotspots in the field of PSCs between 1998 and 2021 and thus may provide insights for future research.

Is everyone invited to the discussion table? A bibliometric analysis COVID-19-related mental health literature

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has captured the mental health discussion worldwide. Examining countries' representation in this discussion could prove instrumental in identifying potential gaps in terms of ensuring a truly global conversation in times of global crisis.

METHODS

We collected mental health and COVID-19-related journal articles published in PubMed in 2020. We focused on the corresponding authors' countries of affiliation to explore countries' representation. We also examined these articles' academic impact and correlations with their corresponding authors' countries of affiliation. Additional journals and countries' indicators were collected from the Web of Science and World Bank websites, respectively. Data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics and the VOSviewer software.

RESULTS

In total, 3492 publications were analyzed. Based on the corresponding author, high-income countries produced 61.9% of these publications. Corresponding authors from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East combined accounted for 11.8% of the publications. Europe hosted corresponding authors with the most publications and citations, and corresponding authors from North America had the largest mean journal impact factor.

CONCLUSIONS

The global scientific discussion during the COVID-19 pandemic saw an increased contribution of academics from developing countries. However, authors from high-income countries have continued to shape this discussion. It is imperative to ensure the active participation of low- and middle-income countries in setting up the global mental health research agenda, particularly in situations of global crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic.

A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 publications in the ten psychology-related Web of Science categories in the social science citation index

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to analyze the characteristics of the COVID-19 publications in the ten psychology-related Web of Science categories in the social science citation index 10-month following the COVID-19 outbreak.

METHODS

Six publication indicators were examined across authors, institutions, and countries.

RESULTS

Analyses showed that the United States has produced the highest number of empirical investigations into the psychological impact of COVID-19, and the majority of the research across all countries was in clinical and psychopathology. Distribution of journals and psychology-related Web of Science categories were analyzed. Frequently used words in article title, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus were also presented.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that there are substantial clinical implications associated with COVID-19. There are recommendations offered for future research and clinical practice.