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Research on Covid-19: a disruptive phenomenon for bibliometrics

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  • Yves Fassin

    (Ghent University)

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has been the highest disruptive event in the world recent history. Worldwide academic research on this topic has led to an explosion of scientific literature, never seen before. Bibliometrics provide methods to illustrate this exceptional phenomenon in academic publications. The objective of this paper is to analyze the Covid-19 research from a bibliometric perspective and to study the impact of the publication explosion on bibliometric indicators. The present study shows how an exceptional phenomenon has a disruptive impact on bibliometric indicators, such as the h-index and the Journal Impact Factor. The higher the specialization, the higher the possible impact of a disruptive phenomenon. In applied sciences, more important than the research or the discipline, the specific theme of the research is crucial for citations of articles and for their impact. The salience of the topic, the magnitude of the problem at study and the urgency to find solutions are drivers for citations. The study of the Covid-19 research illustrates the relativity of indicators and the need for context. The present study also confirms the plead for responsible metrics of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).

Suggested Citation

  • Yves Fassin, 2021. "Research on Covid-19: a disruptive phenomenon for bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5305-5319, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:126:y:2021:i:6:d:10.1007_s11192-021-03989-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-021-03989-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew R. Casey & Ilya Mandel & Prasun K. Ray, 2021. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic productivity," Papers 2109.06591, arXiv.org.
    2. Yuyan Jiang & Xueli Liu, 2023. "A construction and empirical research of the journal disruption index based on open citation data," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3935-3958, July.
    3. Latefa Ali Dardas & Malik Sallam & Amanda Woodward & Nadia Sweis & Narjes Sweis & Faleh A. Sawair, 2023. "Evaluating Research Impact Based on Semantic Scholar Highly Influential Citations, Total Citations, and Altmetric Attention Scores: The Quest for Refined Measures Remains Illusive," Publications, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Breno Santana Santos & Ivanovitch Silva & Luciana Lima & Patricia Takako Endo & Gisliany Alves & Marcel da Câmara Ribeiro-Dantas, 2022. "Discovering temporal scientometric knowledge in COVID-19 scholarly production," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1609-1642, March.
    5. Alice Freiberg & Melanie Schubert & Karla Romero Starke & Janice Hegewald & Andreas Seidler, 2021. "A Rapid Review on the Influence of COVID-19 Lockdown and Quarantine Measures on Modifiable Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the General Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-46, August.
    6. Yujie Zhang & Hongzhen Li & Jingyi Mao & Guoxiu He & Yunhan Yang & Zhuoren Jiang & Yufeng Duan, 2023. "COVID-19: a disruptive impact on the knowledge support of references," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4791-4823, August.
    7. Adnan Al-Banna & Zaid Ashraf Rana & Mohammed Yaqot & Brenno Menezes, 2023. "Interconnectedness between Supply Chain Resilience, Industry 4.0, and Investment," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, August.
    8. Török, Ádám & Konka, Boglárka & Nagy, Andrea Magda, 2023. "A koronavírus-járvány a közgazdasági szakirodalomban. Egy új határterület tudománymetriai elemzése [The coronavirus pandemic in the economics literature. The scientometric analysis of a new discipl," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 284-304.

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