Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Production on the COVID-19 Effect in Information Sciences

Abstract: This paper analyzes the scientific production on the COVID-19 effect in the area of Information Sciences from a bibliometric perspective. The objectives focused on: 1) determining the most productive authors, countries, institutions and journals; 2) identifying the sources that constitute the core of scientific production; 3) examining the manuscripts with the greatest impact; and 4) visualizing the thematic and conceptual structure of the scientific domain analyzed. Bibliometric indicators and factor analysis techniques were used for data analysis. A total of 1,175 publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) core collection from 2020 to 2022 were retrieved. The results showed that the most relevant countries were the United States, United Kingdom, China and Spain. The core of the scientific production was formed by the publications: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Information Professional, Scientometrics and Journal of Health Communication. The papers with the greatest impact were concentrated in those dedicated to the analysis of the role of telemedicine in medical care. The conceptual structure showed the main research fronts, such as the role of telehealth, academic libraries and digital literacy in the fight against the pandemic, the role of social networks in the health crisis, as well as the problem of misinformation and fake news