Research on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 in Dermatology Journals: A Brief Bibliometric Analysis Based on PubMed.

Sir,

Research publications in the dermatology field have shown significant enhancement in the past few years, and have encompassed varying topics of interest. However, in the past 1- year research publication trend is inclined more toward the topic of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. This is not unusual as dermatologic practice has been profoundly affected by this pandemic. Dermatologists had to take adequate precautions to control the transmission of the virus, whereas providing health care to patients in the constrained environment.[1] During the pandemic situation dermatologists have contributed immensely to COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 research with the intention to the dermatologist's community to recognize the emerging cutaneous associations in patients with coronavirus disease 2019.[23] In this brief study, we aim to systematically map dermatological research on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 in major reputed dermatology journals using the bibliometric method. Bibliometric methods have been used for providing quantitative analysis of written publications.[4]

The literature search was conducted by using PubMed database, a widely used and free search engine for bibliometric analysis. The search was done for articles published in the year 2020. The period for data collection was till March 18, 2021. Publications published in the year 2021 were excluded from the study. The keywords used for searching database were (COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and dermatology*) and language was restricted to English. After obtaining relevant articles using the search terms, duplicates were removed. Exclusion of irrelevant contents was filtered out through titles and journal name. The dataset's main outcomes included title of article, document type, authors, journal, institution, country, and citations. The data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2010. A data tabulation was prepared for effective data extraction.

The initial search resulted in 1,251 documents on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, dermatology for the year 2020. A total of 738 documents published were included in the final analysis. Majority of the retrieved documents consisted of Letters (n = 365, 49.4%), followed by comment (n = 136, 18.4%), review (n = 74, 10%), original article (n = 23, 3.1%) and editorial (n = 16, 2.1%). The journals with a maximum number of published documents are presented in [Table 1].

Table 1

The first 10-journal source and leading countries published documents on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 in dermatology journals

Journal Name	Number of publications	% of publications
Dermatologic therapy	216	29.26
Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology	161	21.81
Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology	96	13
International journal of dermatology.	46	6.2
The British journal of dermatology	33	4.47
The Journal of dermatological treatment.	19	2.57
Clinical and experimental dermatology.	17	2.30
Journal of cosmetic dermatology	14	1.89
Clinics in dermatology	12	1.62
JAMA Dermatology.	6	0.81
Others Journals	118	15.98

Among the countries Italy contributed the most published documents (145, 19.6%), followed by USA (n = 140, 18.9%), Spain (n = 58, 7.8%), India (n = 43, 5.2%) and China (n = 30, 4%). The article “Cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19: A first perspective” was the most cited, with 297 citations, at the time of data collection for this study. Of the first 10 most cited articles, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology had 5 articles. [Table 2]. Among the 738 selected documents, 121 (16.3%) publications were in co-authorship with foreign researchers of different countries.

Table 2

Most cited publications on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 in dermatology journals

Publication Title	Authors	Journal Name	Document Type	Epub (Month/Year)	Total Cites
Cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19: A first perspective	S Recalcati	Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology	Letter	May 2020	297
COVID-19 can present with a rash and be mistaken for dengue	Beuy Joob, Viroj Wiwanitkit	Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.	Comment	March 22 2020	113
A dermatologic manifestation of COVID-19: Transient livedo reticularis	Iviensan F Manalo, Molly K Smith, Justin Cheeley, Randy Jacobs	Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.	Infographics	Apr 10. 2020	67
Varicella-like exanthem as a specific COVID-19-associated skin manifestation: Multicenter case series of 22 patients	Angelo Valerio Marzano, Giovanni Genovese, Gabriella Fabbrocini, Paolo Pigatto, Giuseppe Monfrecola, Bianca Maria Piraccini, Stefano Veraldi, Pietro Rubegni, Marco Cusini, Valentina Caputo, Franco Rongioletti, Emilio Berti, Piergiacomo Calzavara-Pinton	Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.	Comment	Apr 16 2020	63
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is likely to be androgen mediated	Carlos Gustavo Wambier, Andy Goren	Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.	Infographics	Apr 10. 2020	58
SARS-CoV-2 endothelial infection causes COVID-19 chilblains: Histopathological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study of seven paediatric cases	I Colmenero, C Santonja, M Alonso-Riaño, L Noguera-Morel, A Hernández-Martín, D Andina, T Wiesner, JL Rodríguez-Peralto, L Requena, A Torrelo	British Journal of Dermatology	Paediatric Dermatology	Aug 5. 2020	58
Cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19: Report of three cases and a review of literature	Muskaan Sachdeva, Raffaele Gianotti, Monica Shah, Lucia Bradanini, Diego Tosi, Stefano Veraldi, Michael Ziv, Eyal Leshem, Roni P Dodiuk-Gad	Journal of Dermatological Science	Review	Apr 29. 2020	57
Chilblain-like lesions during COVID-19 epidemic: A preliminary study on 63 patients	V Piccolo, I Neri, C Filippeschi, T Oranges, G Argenziano, V C Battarra, S Berti, F Manunza, A B Fortina, V Di Lernia, V Boccaletti, G De Bernardis, B Brunetti, C Mazzatenta, A Bassi	Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology	Letter	May 15. 2020	56
Skin damage among health care workers managing coronavirus disease-2019	Jiajia Lan, Zexing Song, Xiaoping Miao, Hang Li, Yan Li, Liyun Dong, Jing Yang, Xiangjie An, Yamin Zhang, Liu Yang, Nuoya Zhou, Liu Yang, Jun Li, JingJiang Cao, Jianxiu Wang, Juan Tao	Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.	Research Letters	Mar 18. 2020	53
Vascular skin symptoms in COVID-19: A French observational study	J D Bouaziz, T A Duong, M Jachiet, C Velter, P Lestang, C Cassius, A Arsouze, E Domergue Than Trong, M Bagot, E Begon, L Sulimovic, M Rybojad	Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology	Observational Study	Jul 20. 2020	52

This bibliometric study provides brief information about published literature on the COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 in leading dermatology journals. Limitations include time period, data collected only for year 2020. The findings of this study can be helpful for dermatologists and researchers to understand current, relevant and identify future research trends on COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 published in dermatology journals.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.