A Scientometric Analysis of Scientific Publications related to COVID-19 in Library and Information Science Research.

Purpose: As part of social sciences, Library and Information Science (LIS) has experienced development in COVID-19 discussions through the academic lens. The increasing number of research related to COVID-19 across subject areas is a response by researchers to overcome this crisis, including research in the LIS field. This research aims to describe the characteristics and trends of the keywords. It also aims to describe the most productive journals, institutions, and countries related to COVID-19 in LIS research. Methods: We analysed 250 documents related to "COVID-19" in LIS research area indexed in Scopus during 2020-2022. VOSviewer was used to analyse the thematic trends and hotspot of the literature. Results: Two hundred and fifty articles were found in 77 journals. The analysis showed that the COVID-19 publications have increased in around 30 months. In terms of the journal, Library Philosophy and Practice published articles in a significant number. Meanwhile, the University of South Africa is the most productive institution. The content analysis found 5 themes dealing with academic libraries (n=56), public libraries (=22), library services (n=18), digital libraries (=12), and social media (n=12). LIS is an interdisciplinary field that has been dealing with various research areas such as social science, arts and humanities, and computer sciences. Conclusion: This study provides an overview of trends based on the most popular keywords. The results provide further information for both LIS researchers and other researchers in other areas. Future research should discuss the trend of combining non-LIS areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]