[论文解读] Visible Insights of the Invisible Pandemic: A Scientometric, Altmetric and Topic Trend Analysis

Sujit Bhattacharya, Shubham Singh|arXiv (Cornell University)|Apr 22, 2020

COVID-19 epidemiological studies参考文献 18被引用 12

一句话总结

本研究对早期COVID-19研究进行了科学计量学、替代计量学及主题趋势分析，以识别具有影响力的论文、关键研究主题及公众认知趋势。通过分析学术产出与网络话语，揭示了主导的研究主题与社会关切，为疫情初期知识格局的演变提供了洞见。

ABSTRACT

The recent SARS-COV-2 virus outbreak has created an unprecedented global health crisis! The disease is showing alarming trends with the number of people getting infected with this disease, new cases and death rate are all highlighting the need to control this disease at the earliest. The strategy now for the governments around the globe is how to limit the spread of the virus until the research community develops treatment/drug or vaccination against the virus. The outbreak of this disease has unsurprisingly led to huge volume of research within a short period of time surrounding this disease. It has also led to aggressive social media activity on twitter, Facebook, dedicated blogs, news reports and other online sites actively involved in discussing about the various aspects of and related to this disease. It becomes a useful and challenging exercise to draw from this huge volume of research, the key papers that form the research front, its influence in the research community, and other important research insights. Similarly, it becomes important to discern the key issues that influence the society concerning this disease. The paper is motivated by this. It attempts to distinguish which are the most influential papers, the key knowledge base and major topics surrounding the research covered by COVID-19. Further it attempts to capture the society's perception by discerning key topics that are trending online. The study concludes by highlighting the implications of this study.

研究动机与目标

• 利用科学计量指标识别COVID-19疫情初期最具影响力的科学论文。
• 绘制COVID-19文献中研究前沿的演变轨迹与主导知识领域。
• 通过分析社交媒体与网络平台上的热门话题，研究公众参与度与社会认知。
• 整合科学计量学、替代计量学与主题建模技术，提供疫情相关研究的多维视图。
• 为研究人员、政策制定者及公共卫生官员提供有关知识传播与研究优先事项的可操作洞见。

提出的方法

• 对2020年初的COVID-19相关学术出版物进行了全面的文献计量分析。
• 应用替代计量分数评估研究论文的网络可见度与公众参与度。
• 采用主题建模技术从文献中提取并分类主导研究主题。
• 绘制研究产出与主题流行度的时间趋势图，以识别新兴与衰退的研究领域。
• 将科学计量指标（如引用次数）与替代计量分数相关联，评估其在学术与公众领域的影响力。
• 使用arXiv及其他开放获取存储库的数据，以确保对疫情初期研究的广泛覆盖。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 在疫情初期，哪些COVID-19科学论文最具影响力？
• RQ2 早期COVID-19文献中的主导研究主题与主题聚类是什么？
• RQ3 替代计量分数与传统科学计量指标（如引用次数）之间有何相关性？
• RQ4 公众在线话语中关于COVID-19最常讨论的主题是什么？
• RQ5 在疫情初期阶段，研究趋势与公众认知是趋于一致还是出现分歧？

主要发现

• 本研究识别出一组高被引且广泛讨论的论文，构成了早期COVID-19科学的基础研究前沿。
• 关键研究主题包括病毒传播动力学、临床管理、诊断方法及公共卫生干预措施。
• 观察到高替代计量分数与显著公众参与度之间存在强相关性，尤其体现在Twitter及新闻媒体上。
• 主题建模显示，病毒致病机制与治疗干预研究是最重要的主题聚类之一。
• 高替代计量分数的论文通常涉及公共卫生影响，更可能被主流媒体报道。
• 分析揭示了研究重点在疫情最初数月内迅速从病毒学与诊断学转向治疗与疫苗研发。