Coronavirus: a scientometric study of worldwide research publications

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a large family of viruses and are endemic in humans and animals, causing respiratory and intestinal infections. CoV has become a challenge in China region due to its recent outbreak at the start of the year 2020. The current outbreak of CoV disease has resulted in many fatalities and has forced the people of Wuhan Province in China to remain confined in their homes. Two other two forms of CoVs were epidemic in 2003 when the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) spread in Hong Kong and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) spread in the Middle East region. This scientometric study is an attempt to trace the trends of research associated with “Coronavirus” for a period of 32 years using the Web of Science citation database. The database was searched on February 26, 2020, for CoV publications published from 1989 to 2020. Identified and analyzed parameters include year of publication, publication type, patterns of international collaboration, research institutions, journals, impact factor, h-index, language, and the number of times cited. Most of the research publications were from the United States (35,871), and the University of Hong Kong was the most productive institute (517, 4.10% publications). The Journal of Virology has published the most number of articles on CoV.