Massive covidization of research citations and the citation elite

John P.A. Ioannidis, Eran Bendavid, Maia Salholz-Hillel, Kevin W. Boyack, Jeroen Baas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

Massive scientific productivity accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the citation impact of COVID-19 publications relative to all scientific work published in 2020 to 2021 and assessed the impact on scientist citation profiles. Using Scopus data until August 1, 2021, COVID-19 items accounted for 4% of papers published, 20% of citations received to papers published in 2020 to 2021, and >30% of citations received in 36 of the 174 disciplines of science (up to 79.3% in general and internal medicine). Across science, 98 of the 100 most-cited papers published in 2020 to 2021 were related to COVID-19; 110 scientists received ≥10,000 citations for COVID-19 work, but none received ≥10,000 citations for non-COVID-19 work published in 2020 to 2021. For many scientists, citations to their COVID-19 work already accounted for more than half of their total career citation count. Overall, these data show a strong covidization of research citations across science, with major impact on shaping the citation elite.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2204074119
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume119
Issue number28
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 12 2022
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • bibliometrics
  • citations
  • COVID-19

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