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Background: Childhood cancer rates in Africa are lower than in high-income countries but increasing, making pediatric cancers a significant public health concern. The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the publication of pediatric cancer research in Africa, including publication types and citation trends over time. Methods: The Science Citation Index Expanded database within the Web of Science Core Collection was searched for articles published from 1991 to 2022 in the topic domain, using title, abstract, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus. Indicators used to assess publications performance of the countries included: total number of publications, single-country publications, collaborative publications with African countries, collaborative publications with non-African countries, first-author publications, corresponding-author publications, and single-author publications. Results: A total of 4461 relevant documents were retrieved, with 2770 original research articles. Annual number of articles rose from 13 articles in 1991 to 287 in 2022. Most articles were produced by Egypt (28 %) in North Africa, followed by South Africa (20 %) in sub-Saharan Africa. Collaboration between African countries remains low; however, international collaborations have enhanced the average number of citations per article. Most of the first authors (65 %) and corresponding authors (67 %) of these international collaborative articles were affiliated with non-African institutions. Conclusions: The number of publications sharply increased over the study period and diversely represents African countries. Collaborations with international partners increased citations; however, few of these publications had African first authors. Conversely, inter-institutional partnerships between African countries were relatively low, highlighting the need for better collaboration within Africa.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis including citation performance in the research topic of literacy within education, by using an innovative method including details of article title, author keyword, KeyWords Plus, and abstracts. This novel study is to our knowledge, the first of its kind within the field of literacy and can therefore provide valuable insights for professionals and others interested in literacy in terms of who and what to read, and where to focus. Data were retrieved 17 December 202217 December 2022 from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) of Clarivate Analytics for studies published from 1992 to 2021. To evaluate research trends, the distribution of keywords in the article title and author‑selected keywords was used. The search yielded 539 documents in SSCI, of which 489 were document-type “articles”. These articles were published in 142 journals. The analysis of the articles showed that “academic writing,” “higher education,” “writing,” and “assessment” are the most used keywords by the authors. The most frequently cited study was published in 1998 by Lea and Street. Most articles were published in English and originated in the USA and the UK. Most studies in the field of professional literacy are produced in the USA and UK, that is, countries with a long tradition of research in professional education and having English as the main language. Most publications are single-country productions because literacy, to a high extent, are local in nature.

BackgroundThe widespread use of mobile technologies in health care (mobile health; mHealth) has facilitated disease management, especially for chronic illnesses such as diabetes. mHealth for diabetes is an attractive alternative to reduce costs and overcome geographical and temporal barriers to improve patients’ conditions. ObjectiveThis study aims to reveal the dynamics of scientific publications on mHealth for diabetes to gain insights into who are the most prominent authors, countries, institutions, and journals and what are the most cited documents and current hot spots. MethodsA scientometric analysis based on a competitive technology intelligence methodology was conducted. An innovative 8-step methodology supported by experts was executed considering scientific documents published between 1998 and 2021 in the Science Citation Index Expanded database. Publication language, publication output characteristics, journals, countries and institutions, authors, and most cited and most impactful articles were identified. ResultsThe insights obtained show that a total of 1574 scientific articles were published by 7922 authors from 90 countries, with an average of 15 (SD 38) citations and 6.5 (SD 4.4) authors per article. These documents were published in 491 journals and 92 Web of Science categories. The most productive country was the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, China, Australia, and South Korea, and the top 3 most productive institutions came from the United States, whereas the top 3 most cited articles were published in 2016, 2009, and 2017 and the top 3 most impactful articles were published in 2016 and 2017. ConclusionsThis approach provides a comprehensive knowledge panorama of research productivity in mHealth for diabetes, identifying new insights and opportunities for research and development and innovation, including collaboration with other entities, new areas of specialization, and human resource development. The findings obtained are useful for decision-making in policy planning, resource allocation, and identification of research opportunities, benefiting researchers, health professionals, and decision makers in their efforts to make significant contributions to the advancement of diabetes science.

AIM: To determine and evaluate the features of highly cited articles (HCAs) in the ophthalmology category in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) from 1991 to 2020. METHODS: The Web of Science Core Collection documents with at least 100 citations from their publication year until December 31, 2020, were evaluated as highly cited. The examined features were the distribution of yearly output and its average number of per publication, HCAs, authors, institutions, journals, and nations. The publication performance of nations and organizations was assessed using six publication indicators. The Y-index was employed to compare the research outputs of various authors. RESULTS: Publications that had cited the most references were highly published in high-impact factor journals. The United States of America came out on top across all six publication indicators, and it was home to eight of the top 10 most productive institutions. The articles written by Breivik et al (2006) and Farrar et al (2001) were highly cited and had a significant impact in 2020. The authors had a higher number of highly cited articles published as corresponding authors than as first authors. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study highlight the current scope of global research in ophthalmology. The findings can help policy-makers and advisory groups of research centers to develop future policies. In addition, the findings can guide researchers in this field.

Publications in Renal Failure in Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) between 1992 and 2021 were analyzed. Six publication indicators: total, independent, collaborative, first author, corresponding author, and single author publications as well as their related citation indicators, were used to compare performances of countries, institutes, and authors. Comparison of the highly cited papers and journal’s impact factor (IF) contributors was discussed. In addition, the main research topics in the journal were presented. Results show that China published the most total articles and reviews, as well as the first-author papers and corresponding-author papers in the journal. The Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan ranked the top in five publication indicators: total, single-institution, inter-institutionally collaborative, first author, and corresponding-author papers. A low percentage of productive authors emerged as a journal IF contributor. Similarly, only a limited relationship between highly cited papers and IF contributing papers was found. Publications related to hemodialysis, chronic kidney disease, and acute kidney injury were the most popular topic, while meta-analysis was new focus in the last decade in the journal.

Abstract Our objective in this review was to determine (1) impactful research articles about CRISPR-edited stem cells, (2) factors that affected CRISPR method performance in stem cell, and (3) research design related to CRISPR-edited stem cells. Screening research papers of related topic was carried out by using the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) database of the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection updated. We screened impactful CRISPR/Cas9-edited stem cells based on total citation until 2020. The result showed the title “RNA-guided human genome engineering via Cas9” was the highest citation in stem cell research using the CRISPR method with total citation 4789 from Web of Science Core Collection until 2020. It became the most influenced paper because this was the first research using CRISPR method for modifying human cells. On the other hand, cell type, CRISPR/Cas9 delivery, and gene target affected CRISPR/Cas9 performance in stem cells. The more complex the cell structure, the more difficult for CRISPR/Cas9 to mutate the host cells. This problem could be solved by modifying the CRISPR/Cas9 delivery by liposome and SaCas9 modification. Another way was using ribonucleoprotein (RNP) as a delivery method. Then, double gene target was more difficult to execute than single gene target. Although it is difficult, CRISPR/Cas9 had the capability to target any genome region from promoter until intron. Research design used a combination of dry lab and wet lab. The dry lab is usually used for sequence analysis and gRNA design. The wet lab which consisted of in vitro and in vivo was used for gene characterization. In particular, colony selection, DNA analysis, and sequencing were important parts for in vitro research design, while DNA analysis and sequencing were crucial parts for in vivo research design. We hoped these findings could give researchers, investor, and students a guideline to conduct CRISPR-edited stem cells in the future.

Educational psychology is a discipline with a relatively long and intricate history. This study contributes to the understanding of the most recent developments of educational psychology research through the exploration of 35,210 articles published in all journals indexed in the Web of Science educational psychology category for the 2000-2019 period. The results of the study show that the volume of research on educational psychology has doubled during this period and a few journals accumulate most of the research produced in the discipline. Most studies have been published in the English language and in the United States, although research produced in China has experienced the greatest growth. Recent research on educational psychology has predominantly addressed 16 research themes over the last 20 years, although research on child-age students, teaching and teacher education, learning and education, assessment and testing, socio-cultural diversity, learning environments, and educational measurement have captured the greatest attention.

To gain insight into the trend of bacterial nanocellulose research, a bibliometric analysis was performed using the Science Citation Index Expanded database from 2005 to 2020. The study concentrated on the publication’s performance in terms of annual outputs and citations, mainstream journals, categories of the Web of Sciences, leading countries, prominent institutions, and trends in research. Current research priorities and future trends were analyzed after summarizing the most commonly used keywords extracted from words in the paper title analysis, authors’ keyword analysis, and KeyWords Plus. The findings revealed that the annual output in the form of scholarly articles on bacterial nanocellulose research steadily increased during the first quartile of the study period, followed by a very rapid increase in the last five-years of the study. Increasing mechanical strength would remain the main future focus of bacterial nanocellulose research to create its scope in different field of applications.

Yang and Meng (2020) used sub-optimal search keywords and methods to publish a bibliometric paper in Ecological Indicators. There are two questionable parts to the original paper: a filter could be used to retrieve a more accurate set of data and the use of sub-optimal search keywords. There is a big difference between the two results that were searched using search keywords (“carbon footprint”, “carbon footprints”, and “carbon footprinting”) which we suggested and (“carbon footprint”) which authors used. Finally, an appropriate method and search keywords were presented.

Abstract Background The past century has witnessed the rapid development of operation technique, surgical instruments, and knowledge of the diseases in orthopedics. In the academic history, a number of classic papers boosted the advancement for surgery. In this paper, we performed a bibliometric analysis, aiming to determine the most influential studies within the field. Methods Articles were searched from the publication year of 1900 to 2016 according to the Science Citation Index Expanded database of the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection database. Two citation indicators TC year and C year were employed to characterize the classic articles and the articles were identified and analyzed. Results A total of 30 classic articles with TC 2016 ≥ 1000 in Web of Science category of orthopedics were identified, all written in English between 1961 and 2007 by nine countries. The minimal value of TC 2016 was 1010; the maximum 3570; and the average 1591. Thirty classic articles were published in eight journals that were listed in the Web of Science category of orthopedics in 2016, and in two other orthopedics journals that were no longer tracked by Web of Science category of orthopedics as of 2016. Among the top 10 cited articles in both TC 2016 and C 2016, five articles barely received attention in the first few years after their publication, while they became cited more and more frequently in the last decade. Conclusion This study evaluated the development and trend of orthopedics research by adopting bibliometric analysis. It serves as a guide for investigators in the future research.

This article performs bibliometric analysis to study the contributions of Saudi institutions in the education field in journals indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED). Publications from 1991 to 2020 were assessed. Characteristics of document types, publication outputs, Web of Science categories and journals, and publication performances in terms of quantity for countries and institutes were investigated. To investigate performance quality, citation histories of the most frequently cited articles in the 30 years and the most frequently cited articles in 2020 were examined. The number of citations from the WoS Core Collection in the most recent year, total number of citations since the publication year 2020, and citations per publication were used to evaluate publication performances. Results showed that educational research articles were substantially published in the last decade. The most number of articles were published in the category of scientific disciplines education, followed by the education and educational research category. For international collaboration, Saudi Arabia had the most number of international collaborations with the US. However, articles that were collaborated with Germany had the highest impact. King Saud University was the most productive institution in terms of high-quantity and high-quality published articles.

Li et al. (2019) used inappropriate searching words and method to publish a bibliometric paper in Water. The results show a huge difference from the results by using an appropriate method. This comment points out each of problems.

As an emerging research direction in the field of systems and control, distributed control or decentralized control has attracted great interests of researchers in the past decade. In this paper, a bibliometric analysis of the relevant publications is presented based on the data collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded Web of Science. In particular, we make a discussion on the trend of total publications, journal distribution, top research organizations (i.e. universities and institutes), and publication performance of nations, and the focus is on highly cited articles and authors, subject categories, and the future trend of hot topics. Some key bibliometric indexes such as single country articles, first author articles, and internationally collaborative articles are employed to give us a detailed picture about the intrinsic relationship and the state of the art of distributed control publications. Finally, the statistical analysis indicates that multi-agent systems are extremely popular in recent years and will dominate the future research on distributed control.

Background: A bibliometric analysis was completed of the peer-reviewed literature from 1991 to 2015 written by British occupational therapy authors that was indexed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIExpanded) or Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases. Methods: “Occupational therapy” and “occupational therapist” were used as keywords to search journal articles’ publication title, abstract, author details, keywords, and KeyWords Plus. One of the authors had to be identified as a qualified occupational therapist with a British affiliation. Results: From 1991 to 2015, 680 journal articles were published by British occupational therapy authors. The top three journals in which authors published were the British Journal of Occupational Therapy, Clinical Rehabilitation, and Disability and Rehabilitation. The five institutions that generated the largest number of occupational therapy articles were the University of Nottingham, Brunel University London, University of Southampton, Queen Margaret University, and the University of East Anglia. British authors often collaborated in the writing of manuscripts with other authors from Australia, the United States, Canada, and Sweden. Conclusion: The quantity of occupational therapy peer-reviewed literature written by British authors has increased over the last 2 decades. British authors have made and continue to make noteworthy contributions to the profession’s body of refereed knowledge at the national and international levels.

Objective: Human pluripotent stem cells are self-renewing cells with the ability to differentiate into a variety of cells and are viewed to have great potential in the field of regenerative medicine. Research in pluripotent stem cells holds great promise for patient specific therapy in various diseases. In this study, pluripotent stem cell articles published from 1991 to 2012 were screened and retrieved from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED). Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, the publication trend, citation trends for top articles, distributions of journals and Web of Science categories were analyzed. Five bibliometric indicators including total articles, independent articles, collaborative articles, first author articles, and corresponding author articles were applied to compare publications between countries and institutions. Results: The impact of top articles changed from year to year. Top cited articles in previous publication years were not the same as recent years. "Induced pluripotent stem cell (s)" and "embryonic stem cell (s)" were the most used author keywords in pluripotent stem cell research. In addition, the winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012, Prof. Shinya Yamanaka, published four of the top ten most frequently cited articles. Conclusion: The comprehensive analysis of highly cited articles in the stem cell field could identify milestones and important contributors, giving a historic perspective on scientific progress.

Despite of its small size, the Central American country of Costa Rica is internationally recognized as one of the world leaders in conservation and as the Central American leader in science. There have been no recent studies on the country’s scientific production. The objective of this study was to analyze the Costa Rican scientific output as represented in the Science Citation Index Expanded. All documents with “Costa Rica” in the address field from 1981 to 2010 were included (total 6 801 publications). Articles (79%) were more frequent than other types of publication and were mostly in English (83%). Revista de Biología Tropical published the most articles (17%), followed by Toxicon and Turrialba (2.5%). The New England Journal of Medicine had the highest impact factor (53.484) with nine articles. Of 5 343 articles with known institutional address, 63%were internationally collaborative articles (most with the USA) with h index 91 and citation per publication 18. A total of 81% of all articles were inter-institutionally collaborative articles, led by the Universidad de Costa Rica. This reflects research and education agreements among these countries. Universidad de Costa Rica ranked top one in inter-institutionally collaborative articles, the rank of the total inter-institutionally collaborative articles, and the rank of first author articles and corresponding author articles. Studied subjects and journals in our sample are in agreement with dominant science fields and journals in Costa Rica. Articles with the highest citation were published in New England Journal of Medicine. The largest citation of medical articles reflects the general interest and wider readership of this subject. All corresponding and first authors of the high impact articles were not from Costa Rica. In conclusion, the scientific output of Costa Rican authors is strong in the areas related to conservation but the impact is higher for biomedical articles, and Costa Rican authors need to improve their position within research teamsA pesar de su pequeño tamaño, el país centroamericano de Costa Rica es reconocido internacionalmente como uno de los líderes mundiales en la conservación y como el líder centroamericano en la ciencia. No se han realizado estudios recientes sobre la producción científica del país. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la producción científica de Costa Rica, tal como se representa en el Science Citation Index Expanded. Todos los documentos con “Costa Rica” en el campo de dirección de 1981 a 2010 fueron incluidos (total de 6 801 publicaciones). Los artículos (79%) fueron más frecuentes que otros tipos de publicación y eran en su mayoría en inglés (83%). Revista de Biología Tropical publicó el mayor número de artículos (17%), seguido por Toxicon y Turrialba (2.5%). El New England Journal of Medicine tuvo el mayor factor de impacto (53.484), con nueve artículos. De los 5 343 artículos con dirección institucional conocida, el 63% eran artículos de colaboración a nivel internacional (la mayoría con los EE.UU.) con índice h 91 y las citas por publicación 18. Un total de 81% de todos los artículos eran dirigidos por la Universidad de Costa Rica con la colaboración de otras instituciones. Esto refleja acuerdos de investigación y educación entre países. La Universidad de Costa Rica se situó en el primer puesto en la colaboración en artículos a nivel inter-institucional, y el rango de los artículos del primer autor y artículos con autores de correspondencia. Los temas estudiados y las revistas de la muestra coinciden con los campos de las ciencias dominantes y revistas en Costa Rica. Los artículos con mayor citación fueron publicados en New England Journal of Medicine. La mayor citación de artículos médicos refleja el interés general y un público más amplio para este tema. Todos los autores de correspondencia y el primer autor de los artículos de alto impacto no eran de Costa Rica. En conclusión, la producción científica de autores costarricenses es fuerte en las áreas relacionadas con la conservación, pero el impacto es mayor para los artículos biomédicos, y los autores de Costa Rica necesitan mejorar su posición dentro de estos temas de investigación.

An unprecedented outbreak of the Ebola virus in 2014 claimed more than 1000 lives in West Africa and the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency. This outbreak will undoubtedly promote additional research related to the Ebola virus and will create debate related to experimental drugs. This article identified the quantum of research in the field since 1991; the scientific disciplines that contributed to the field; the countries, organisations and authors that supported such research and the most cited articles. An increasing trend in annual production during 1991–2013 was observed. Journal of Virology, Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Virology were the three most productive journals in the field. Similarly, the field of virology dominated the 73 categories in which the Ebola research was classified. A total of 63 countries contributed to Ebola-related research, led by the USA. The most productive institutions were the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. African countries were more likely to be involved in international collaboration than independent research. The most influential article exhibited a notable citation pattern and presented global trends in emerging infectious diseases.

Many diseases in Africa can be prevented with appropriate public health interventions. This study aimed to assess the bibliometric characteristics of public health related research articles published by researchers in African institutions from 1991 to 2005. Data used in this study were obtained from the online version of the ISI Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded). Articles published between 1991 and 2005 that had the phrase 'public health' in the title, author keywords or abstract, and had at least one author whose contact address was in an African country, were selected for analysis. The annual number of public health related articles published by African researchers significantly increased from 28 articles in 1991 to 135 articles in 2005, a 382% increase. International collaboration also increased: from 45% of articles having international collaborators during 1991-1995, to 52% during1996-2000, and to 67% during 2001-2005. Collaborations were mostly with European and North American countries. Keywords, subject categories and collaboration patterns of articles varied across regions, reflecting differences in needs and collaboration networks. Public health related research output, as well as international collaborations, have been increasing in Africa. Regional variation observed in this study may assist policymakers to facilitate the advancement of public health research in different regions of Africa, and could be useful for international organisations in identifying needs and to allocate research funding. Future bibliometric analyses of articles published by African researchers, can consider conducting regional comparisons using standardised methods, as well as describing the overall patterns, in order to provide a more comprehensive view of their bibliometric characteristics.

Introduction: The importance of tropical medicine cannot be overstated, since by the end of the 2030s, most humans will live in the tropics and will need protection from tropical diseases. Nevertheless, until now, there are no bibliometric studies about tropical medicine as a whole; all previous studies are limited to diseases, countries or particular journals, and are often limited to brief periods of time. Here we present an analysis of historical trends for the world and for the Revista de Biología Tropical in celebration of the journal's 70th anniversary. Objective: To assess geographic and historical trends in the study of tropical medicine included in a general database, the Web of Science and from a detailed analysis of one journal of particular importance for the field in the neotropical region. Methods: We limited our data to journals covered by the Web of Science category "tropical medicine" in the Science Citation Index Expanded (data updated 19 January 2022) and the Journal Citation Report on 30 June 2021. Results: We retrieved 69 480 articles, of which 44 % resulted from international collaboration with 194 participating countries; articles may reach 17-21 citations each, and the countries with outstanding results in the database include USA, Brazil, UK, Kenya and Switzerland. Research focus changes as diseases such as HIV, Dengue and tuberculosis become more or less important over time, but overall there was much research on Plasmodium, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis. The journal Revista de Biología Tropical has significantly increased the number of topics covered, but still publishes studies about tropical biomedical subjects. Conclusions: While countries with large research budgets have a large presence in this database, lower income tropical countries like Brazil and Kenya have done a remarkable contribution in the field of tropical medicine. The Revista de Biología Tropical has been publishing quality research about tropical medicine for the last seven decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to analyze the multiple sclerosis research in Science Citation Index-Expanded from 1992 to 2019 in order to determine the top features, trends, and topics. Methods: In this scientometric study, research population was all articles related to multiple sclerosis in the Web of Science from 1992 to 2019. These articles were retrieved from the Science Citation Index-Expanded and analyzed based on various indicators and characteristics. Results: There was a significant increase in the number of articles from 408 in 1992 to 2756 in 2019. A sum of 42,112 articles related to multiple sclerosis has been published in 3,032 journals, which were classified among the 131 Web of Science categories. The top two categories were clinical neurology and neurosciences. Multiple Sclerosis Journal published the most articles. Articles published in the Neurology Journal also had the highest citation per publication. Most of the articles were in English, while 23 other languages were used in the articles. Articles in Japanese and English with 7 and 6.9 authors have a higher average of authors than articles in other languages. English language articles received more citations than articles in other languages. The frequency of used keywords in title, abstract, author keywords, and keywords plus analysis showed that "therapy", "disability", "neurodegeneration", "demyelination" and "MRI" show an increasing trend in the multiple sclerosis articles. Conclusion: The result of this study can help the policy makers and researchers realize the panorama of multiple sclerosis research and design future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bibliometric analysis based on the Science Citation Index Expanded database from 1991 to 2020 was performed to obtain insight into the future direction of wound dressing research. The study focused on the publication’s performance in terms of yearly outputs and citations, mainstream journals, categories of the Web of Sciences, top countries, leading institutions, trends in research, and hotspots. A summary of the most commonly used keywords extracted from words in the paper title analysis, authors’ keyword analysis, and KeyWords Plus analysis served as the foundation for determining current research priorities and future trends. The findings revealed that the annual output of the corresponding scholarly articles remained more or less the same during the first decade, followed by a rapid increase in the remaining period of the study. Tissue engineering would be the future of the existing wound dressing research. Biomaterials and electrospinning are gaining importance as raw materials and fabrication techniques for wound dressing. Advanced wound dressings with antimicrobial functionality and sustained drug release properties are becoming a popular research avenue in the wound dressing research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: An outbreak of the COVID-19 was appended in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Lots of related papers were published in the world since then. Objective: This study aimed to identify and analyze the characteristics of COVID-19 publications in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) published by Latin Americans in 2020. Methods: Documents including searching keywords in their title, abstract, or author keywords from SCIEXPANDED were assessed. The analyzed aspects covered characteristics of document types, languages, Web of Science categories, and journals. Publication performances of countries and institutions were evaluated by six publication indicators and two citation indicators. Results: A lower percentage of articles and a higher percentage of Spanish language were found. Web of Science category of general and internal medicine published the most articles. The Clinics was the most popular journal. The Cadernos de Saude Publica and Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira published the most publications and reviews, respectively. Brazil took a leading position in the six publication indicators. The University of São Paulo in Brazil was the most productive institution. Based on the number of citations from the Web of Science Core Collection since publication to the end of 2020, 10 most frequently cited publications were presented. In addition, the analysis of words in publication titles, author keywords, and KeyWords Plus was performed to find the main research focuses. Conclusions: In 2020, a total of 3 056 COVID-19 documents in SCI-EXPANDED were published by Latin Americans mainly in the Web of Science categories of 'general and internal medicine' and 'public, environmental and occupational health'. More letters and editorial materials and fewer articles were published in the first year of its outbreak. A higher percentage of Spanish and Portuguese publications was found. Brazil dominated the six publication indicators. The University of São Paulo in Brazil ranked top in all the six publication indicators while the Technological University of Pereira in Colombia had a higher impact for their first- and corresponding-author publications. Health and infection were the main research focuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]