Research Output and International Cooperation Among Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Scientometric Analysis.

Background The global pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronarvirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) leading to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to immediate and massive worldwide research activities. Rapid publication of research data may be desirable but also carries the risk of quality loss. Objective This analysis aimed to correlate the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak with its related scientific output per region. Methods All articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic were retrieved from Web-of-Science and analyzed utilizing the web application SciPE (Science-Performance-Evaluation), allowing large data scientometric analyses regarding global geographical distribution of scientific output. Results A total of 7,185 articles, including 2,898 articles, 2,275 editorial materials, 2,646 early access, 1,621 letters and 711 reviews and other contributions were extracted. The top three countries involved in COVID-19 research were the United States (US), China, and Italy. The regional number of confirmed COVID-19 cases or deaths correlated with the scientific research efforts. The US was most active in terms of collaborative efforts, sharing a significant amount of manuscripts with the United Kingdom (UK), China, and Italy. For China, the US was the frequent cooperating nation, followed by the UK. Conclusions The research landscape related to COVID-19 is rapidly developing and is driven by countries with a general strong research output but is also strongly affected by countries with high prevalence of COVID-19 cases. The US dominates international collaborative efforts.