Mapping the Scientific Literature on COVID-19 and Mental Health

Psychiatr Danub. 2020 Autumn-Winter;32(3-4):463-471. doi: 10.24869/psyd.2020.463.

Abstract

Background: Within a few months during COVID-19 pandemic, more than a thousand studies on this topic have been published in scientific journals. Hence, the aim of the present study was to review and analyze the publishing trends on mental health literature including top cited documents, productive countries, institutions, journals, authorship and collaboration, the most frequent keywords and funding bodies.

Method: A bibliometric analysis was performed, and data were retrieved from Scopus. The relevant data was harvested and 277 relevant records were imported on July 15, 2020. The data analysis was performed using various bibliometric software.

Results: These documents were published by 195 journals and received 738 citations. USA ranked first with 50 articles and China is the most influential country with the highest Citation Impact. International journal of Environmental research and Public Health is the top journal for mental health studies with highest number of papers and citation impact. The trend of multi-author publications has outnumbered single-author pattern.

Conclusion: Overall research shows that most of the papers published related to mental health care and COVID-19 were in the field of medicine and psychology. This research is first bibliometric study in the field of mental health care related to COVID-19.

MeSH terms

  • Bibliometrics
  • COVID-19*
  • China
  • Humans
  • Mental Health*
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2