Global research trend in the treatment of the new Coronavirus diseases (COVID-19): bibliometric analysis

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused worldwide concern and has become a major medical problem. Vaccines and therapeutics are important interventions for the management of this outbreak. This study aims to used bibliometric methods to identify research trends in the domain of therapeutics and vaccines to cure patients with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Web of Science Core Collection database was retrieved for articles on therapeutic approaches to coronavirus disease management published between January 1, 2020 and May 20, 2020. Identified and analyzed the data included title, corresponding author, language, publication time, publication type, research focus.

A total of 1569 articles on coronavirus therapeutic means from 84 countries were published in 620 journals. We note the remarkable progressive increase in the number of publications related to research on therapies and vaccines for COVID-19. The United States provided the largest number of articles (405), followed by China (364). Journal of Medical Virology published most of them (n = 40). 1005 (64.05%) were articles, 286 (18.23%) were letters, 230 (14.66%) were reviews. The terms “COVID- 19” or “SARS-CoV-2” or “Coronavirus” or “hydroxychloroquine” or “chloroquine” or “2019-nCOV” or “ACE2” or “treatment” or “remdesivir” or “pneumonia” were most frequently used, as shown in the density visualization map. A network analysis based on keyword co-occurrence revealed five distinct types of studies: clinical, biological, epidemiological, pandemic management, and therapeutics (vaccines and treatments).

COVID-19 is a major disease that has had an impact on international public health at the global level. Several avenues for treatment and vaccines have been explored. Most of them focus on older drugs used to treat other diseases that have been effective for other types of coronaviruses. There is a discrepancy in the results obtained from the studies of the drugs included in this study. Randomized clinical trials are needed to evaluate older drugs and develop new treatment options.