Abstract

The top 100 most cited articles on COVID-19

Taylor D. Johnson BS, Surav Man Sakya BS, Judy Park Sakya BS, Edwin Onkendi MBChB, David R. Hallan MD

Corresponding author: Taylor D. Johnson
Contact Information: tjohnson11@pennstatehealth.psu.edu
DOI: 10.12746/swrccc.v8i35.739

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the 100 most cited publications focusing on COVID-19 to provide readers with useful historical information on current relevant research.

Methods: A search of all databases and journals accessible in Elsevier’s Scopus was performed on May 13th, 2020. The document search was performed using query “COVID-19,” yielding 6,693 results. A similar search was performed using Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science, yielding 2,593 documents and fewer citations. The top 100 most cited papers were identified, and data were extracted. All references contained within the top 100 articles were collected. Statistical analysis was performed using R-Studio and Bibliometrix.

Results: The top 100 most cited articles were published in 50 different journals from over 25 countries. The most cited article is “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China” by Huang et al., published in The Lancet with 1184 citations. Included are a list of the top 100 most cited articles, the most cited authors, the top five journals these publications most frequently appeared in, the most contributing countries, the top institutional affiliations, and the top international collaborations of the top 100 most cited publications on COVID-19.

Conclusion: In this study, the top 100 most cited works regarding COVID-19 have been identified and analyzed. This study will serve as a historical reference for future research. This study will also provide an educational guide to facilitate effective evidence-based medical research and offer insight into the developments of COVID-19 research.

Keywords: Scientometric, Bibliometric, COVID-19, Coronavirus

INTRODUCTION

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), also known as “COVID-19,” has been a global tragedy in 2020. In December 2019, a series of pneumonia cases of unknown cause, clinically resembling a viral pneumonia, emerged in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Deep sequencing analysis found that SARS-CoV-2 was a relative of the viruses causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS); it affects the lower respiratory tract manifesting as pneumonia in humans.2,3 The virus spreads faster than its two ancestors, but has lower mortality.4 As of June 20, 2020, there were more than 8.7 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide and more than 460,000 deaths.5 The amount of published works about the virus is staggering, and medical professionals are struggling to keep up.

The aim of this study was to identify the 100 most cited publications focusing on COVID-19. Many medical specialties use bibliometrics to compile, publish, and review the most cited works within their respective fields.6 Our literature search revealed that this has not been done for COVID-19. Analyzing the current status and trends can provide a basis for relevant COVID-19 publications, provide readers useful information about the areas of research performed, provide an educational guide to facilitate effective evidence-based medical research, and provide unique insight into the developments in COVID-19 research.

METHODS

A search of all databases and journals accessible in Elsevier’s Scopus was performed on May 13th, 2020. The document search was performed using query “COVID-19,” yielding 6,693 results. A similar search was performed using Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science, yielding 2,593 documents and fewer citations. The top 100 most cited papers from Elsevier’s database were identified, and data were extracted, collected, and sorted. All references contained within the top 100 articles were collected, sorted, and counted. Statistical analysis was performed using a combination of R-Studio and Bibliometrix.1

RESULTS

CITATIONS

All articles were published in 2020. The most cited article was “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China” by Huang C et al., published in The Lancet with 1184 citations (Table 1).2 Of the 100 most cited articles, the number of citations ranged from 32 to 1184 (Table 1).


Table 1. The Top 100 Most Cited COVID-19 Articles

The Top 100 Most-Cited Articles For COVID-19
Rank # Title Authors Source title Total Citations
1 Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China Huang C. et al. The Lancet 1184
2 A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019 Zhu N. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 705
3 Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study Chen N. et al. The Lancet 641
4 Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China Guan W. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 570
5 A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: a study of a family cluster Chan J.F.-W. et al. The Lancet 451
6 A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin Zhou P. et al. Nature 432
7 Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding Lu R. et al. The Lancet 379
8 Characteristics of and Important Lessons from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72314 Cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Wu Z. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 377
9 First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States Holshue M.L. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 306
10 Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study Zhou F. et al. The Lancet 286
11 Transmission of 2019-NCOV infection from an asymptomatic contact in Germany Rothe C. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 235
12 Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro Wang M. et al. Cell Research 229
13 Pathological findings of COVID-19 associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome Xu Z. et al. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 189
14 A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China Wu F. et al. Nature 168
15 SARS-CoV-2 viral load in upper respiratory specimens of infected patients Zou L. el al. New England Journal of Medicine 163
16 Cancer patients in SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide analysis in China Liang W. et al. The Lancet Oncology 151
17 Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records Chen H. et al. The Lancet 149
18 Correlation of Chest CT and RT-PCR Testing in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China: A Report of 1014 Cases Ai T. et al. Radiology 139
19 The epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Response Epidemiology Team Zhonghua liu xing bing xue za zhi = Zhonghua liuxingbingxue Zazhi 138
20 SARS-CoV-2 Cell Entry Depends on ACE2 and TMPRSS2 and Is Blocked by a Clinically Proven Protease Inhibitor Hoffmann M. et al. Cell 131
21 Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies Gao J. et al. BioScience Trends 130
22 Presumed Asymptomatic Carrier Transmission of COVID-19 Bai Y. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 123
23 Receptor recognition by the novel coronavirus from Wuhan: An analysis based on decade-long structural studies of SARS coronavirus Wan Y. et al. Journal of Virology 121
24 A Trial of Lopinavir-Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19 Cao B. et al. The New England journal of medicine 119
25 CT imaging features of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-NCoV) Chung M. et al. Radiology 112
26 Risk Factors Associated with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Death in Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia in Wuhan, China Wu C. et al. JAMA Internal Medicine 107
27 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): The epidemic and the challenges Lai C.-C. et al. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 104
28 Clinical evidence does not support corticosteroid treatment for 2019-nCoV lung injury Russell C.D. et al. The Lancet 104
29 Evolution of the novel coronavirus from the ongoing Wuhan outbreak and modeling of its spike protein for risk of human transmission Xu X. et al. Science China Life Sciences 99
30 Importation and human-to-human transmission of a novel coronavirus in Vietnam Phan L.T. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 98
31 Genomic characterization of the 2019 novel human-pathogenic coronavirus isolated from a patient with atypical pneumonia after visiting Wuhan Chan J.F.-W. et al. Emerging Microbes and Infections 92
32 Radiological findings from 81 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study Shi H. et al. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 90
33 Time Course of Lung Changes On Chest CT During Recovery From 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pneumonia Pan F. et al. Radiology 90
34 Emerging coronaviruses: Genome structure, replication, and pathogenesis Chen Y. et al. Journal of Medical Virology 89
35 Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents Kampf G. et al. Journal of Hospital Infection 87
36 Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China Zhang J.-J. et al. Allergy: European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 84
37 A novel coronavirus emerging in China-Key questions for impact assessment Munster V.J. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 81
38 COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression Mehta P. et al. The Lancet 79
39 COVID-19 and Italy: what next? Remuzzi A. et al. The Lancet 78
40 Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? Fang L. et al. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 77
41 Cross-species transmission of the newly identified coronavirus 2019-nCoV Ji W. et al. Journal of Medical Virology 70
42 Clinical predictors of mortality due to COVID-19 based on an analysis of data of 150 patients from Wuhan, China Ruan Q. et al. Intensive Care Medicine 70
43 The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application Lauer S.A. et al. Annals of internal medicine 69
44 A rapid advice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infected pneumonia (standard version) Jin Y.-H. et al. Military Medical Research 68
45 Updated understanding of the outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China Wang W. et al. Journal of Medical Virology 67
46 Sensitivity of Chest CT for COVID-19: Comparison to RT-PCR Fang Y. et al. Radiology 65
47 Drug treatment options for the 2019-new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Lu H. BioScience Trends 65
48 Practical recommendations for critical care and anesthesiology teams caring for novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) patients [Directives concrètes à l’intention des équipes de soins intensifs et d’anesthésiologie prenant soin de patients atteints du coronavirus 2019-nCoV] Wax R.S. et al. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia 63
49 An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time Dong E. et al. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 62
50 COVID-19 and the cardiovascular system Zheng Y.-Y. et al. Nature Reviews Cardiology 61
51 Molecular and serological investigation of 2019-nCoV infected patients: implication of multiple shedding routes Zhang W. et al. Emerging Microbes and Infections 61
52 Chest CT Findings in Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19): Relationship to Duration of Infection Bernheim A. et al. Radiology 60
53 Case-Fatality Rate and Characteristics of Patients Dying in Relation to COVID-19 in Italy Onder G. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 60
54 Critical Care Utilization for the COVID-19 Outbreak in Lombardy, Italy: Early Experience and Forecast during an Emergency Response Grasselli G. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 60
55 The reproductive number of COVID-19 is higher compared to SARS coronavirus Liu Y. et al. Journal of Travel Medicine 59
56 Virtually Perfect? Telemedicine for Covid-19 Hollander J.E. et al. The New England journal of medicine 58
57 Return of the coronavirus: 2019-nCoV Gralinski L.E. et al. Viruses 57
58 Incubation period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV) infections among travellers from Wuhan, China, 20 28 January 2020 Backer J.A. et al. Eurosurveillance 56
59 World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Sohrabi C. et al. International Journal of Surgery 55
60 Clinical and biochemical indexes from 2019-nCoV infected patients linked to viral loads and lung injury Liu Y. et al. Science China Life Sciences 51
61 CT imaging of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-NCoV) pneumonia Lei J. et al. Radiology 51
62 The neuroinvasive potential of SARS-CoV2 may play a role in the respiratory failure of COVID-19 patients Li Y.-C. et al. Journal of Medical Virology 50
63 Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19 Emanuel E.J. et al. The New England journal of medicine 50
64 Dysregulation of immune response in patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China Qin C. et al. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 50
65 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Perspective from China Zu Z.Y. et al. Radiology 49
66 Pattern of early human-to-human transmission of Wuhan 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), December 2019 to January 2020 Riou J. et al. Eurosurveillance 49
67 Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as available weapons to fight COVID-19 Colson P. et al. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 46
68 Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts Hellewell J. et al. The Lancet Global Health 46
69 Emerging 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-NCoV) pneumonia Song F. et al. Radiology 46
70 Structural basis for the recognition of SARS-CoV-2 by full-length human ACE2 Yan R. et al. Science 44
71 The epidemiology and pathogenesis of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak Rothan H.A. et al. Journal of Autoimmunity 43
72 Functional assessment of cell entry and receptor usage for SARS-CoV-2 and other lineage B betacoronaviruses Letko M. et al. Nature Microbiology 42
73 Therapeutic options for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Li G. et al. Nature reviews. Drug discovery 42
74 Chest CT findings in 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-NCoV) infections from Wuhan, China: Key points for the radiologist Kanne J.P. Radiology 42
75 High expression of ACE2 receptor of 2019-nCoV on the epithelial cells of oral mucosa Xu H. et al. International Journal of Oral Science 40
76 How will country-based mitigation measures influence the course of the COVID-19 epidemic? Anderson R.M. et al. The Lancet 40
77 Covid-19-Navigating the uncharted Fauci A.S. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 39
78 The origin, transmission and clinical therapies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak-An update on the status Guo Y.-R. et al. Military Medical Research 39
79 Pulmonary Pathology of Early-Phase 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pneumonia in Two Patients With Lung Cancer Tian S. et al. Journal of Thoracic Oncology 38
80 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Italy Livingston E. et al. JAMA 38
81 COVID-19: what is next for public health? Heymann D.L. et al. The Lancet 38
82 Defining the epidemiology of Covid-19-Studies needed Lipsitch M. et al. New England Journal of Medicine 37
83 Factors Associated With Mental Health Outcomes Among Health Care Workers Exposed to Coronavirus Disease 2019 Lai J. et al. JAMA network open 37
84 Case of the index patient who caused tertiary transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 in Korea: The application of lopinavir/ritonavir for the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia monitored by quantitative RT-PCR Lim J. et al. Journal of Korean Medical Science 37
85 Angiotensin receptor blockers as tentative SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics Gurwitz D. Drug Development Research 37
86 Prevalence of comorbidities and its effects in coronavirus disease 2019 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis Yang J. et al. International Journal of Infectious Diseases 36
87 Convalescent plasma as a potential therapy for COVID-19 Chen L. et al. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 36
88 Characteristics and Outcomes of 21 Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19 in Washington State Arentz M. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 36
89 Potent binding of 2019 novel coronavirus spike protein by a SARS coronavirus-specific human monoclonal antibody Tian X. et al. Emerging Microbes and Infections 36
90 Positive RT-PCR Test Results in Patients Recovered from COVID-19 Lan L. et al. JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association 35
91 Enteric involvement of coronaviruses: is faecal–oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 possible? Yeo C. et al. The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology 35
92 Online mental health services in China during the COVID-19 outbreak Liu S. et al. The Lancet Psychiatry 34
93 Pathogenicity and transmissibility of 2019-nCoV—A quick overview and comparison with other emerging viruses Chen J. Microbes and Infection 34
94 The COVID-19 epidemic Velavan T.P. et al. Tropical Medicine and International Health 34
95 Prevalence and impact of cardiovascular metabolic diseases on COVID-19 in China Li B. et al. Clinical Research in Cardiology 33
96 Estimating the asymptomatic proportion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, Yokohama, Japan, 2020 Mizumoto K. et al. Eurosurveillance 33
97 Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China Wang C. et al. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 33
98 The SARS, MERS and novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemics, the newest and biggest global health threats: what lessons have we learned? Peeri N.C. et al. International journal of epidemiology 33
99 COVID-19: Gastrointestinal Manifestations and Potential Fecal–Oral Transmission Gu J. et al. Gastroenterology 32
100 Mental health care for medical staff in China during the COVID-19 outbreak Chen Q. et al. The Lancet Psychiatry 32

AUTHORS, COUNTRIES AND AFFILIATIONS

A total of 720 authors contributed to these published works, with reference dates ranging from 1937 to 2020. These articles were written by authors in various specialties, representing over 25 countries, and were published in 50 different journals. X. Li published the greatest number of the most cited articles (55). The top five countries contributing to the top 100 most cited articles were China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland contributing 53, 17, 8, 5, and 4 articles, respectively. There were 172 reported institutional affiliations with the top 100 most cited articles. Figure 1 illustrates the institutions affiliated with greater than or equal to 10 of the 100 most cited publications. Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University is affiliated with the most articles (37).

Figure 1

Figure 1. Top affiliations associated with greater than or equal to 10 articles.

COLLABORATIONS AND SPONSORS

A total of 32 country to country collaborations were identified, with the most frequent collaboration in the top 100 most cited being between China and the United States. Fifty-three articles had funding sponsors. The top funding sponsors were the National Natural Science Foundation of China which sponsored 11 articles, followed by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Basic Research Program of China, which each sponsored 10 articles.

JOURNAL OF PUBLICATION

The top five journals were (1) The Lancet with 11 publications, (2) The New England Journal of Medicine with 9, (3) Radiology with 9, (4) The Journal of the American Medical Association with 6, and (5) the Journal of Medical Virology with 4 (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Top 20 journals.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

This study sought to identify and characterize the top 100 most cited articles regarding COVID-19 to gain insight into the most influential COVID-19 articles. As the world works to understand and control this virus, it is important to understand the current research landscape. Although the knowledge about COVID-19 is rapidly expanding and changing, this study offers important quantitative information to understand the current progress and trends of COVID-19 research. Furthermore, the most prolific authors and countries were identified to encourage inter-country collaboration among the top active researchers found in this study. The top 100 articles were published in 50 different journals, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature and complexity of this disease. To our knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis on COVID-19. The results of our study showed that COVID-19 research is unprecedented with more than 6500 publications in under a year. Moreover, the top cited COVID-19 articles are important for future researchers to consider. This study will serve as a reference for COVID-19 research and an educational foundation for physicians and researchers.


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Article citation: Johnson TD, Sakya SM, Sakya JP, Onkendi E, Hallan DR. The top 100 most cited articles on COVID-19. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles 2020;8(35):42–50
From: The School of Medicine (TDJ, SMS), Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA; Department of Surgery (EO), Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX; Department of Neurosurgery (DRH), Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA; School of Medicine (JPS), Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas
Submitted: 6/22/2020
Accepted: 7/13/2020
Reviewer: Gilbert Berdine MD
Conflicts of interest: none
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.