The Literature Landscape of Covid-19 and Socio-Economic Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

This study reviews the literature on COVID-19 and socio-economic studies to identify current research areas and suggest ways forward through bibliometric analysis of 426 published documents retrieved from the Scopus database concerning COVID-19, scientific, and socio-economic research in the year 2020. The findings reveal that the pandemic affected the socio-economic domain through the imposed social distancing, applied based on different severity levels in various countries. This study shows that the most common keyword used in titles, abstracts, and author keywords is “COVID-19”. Two-authored documents have the highest number of total publications. The top affiliations are the University College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The United States is the top country in terms of total publications. The findings highlighted the increase in stress levels in the healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessity of scientific research to help scholars understand the various socio-economic impacts of this crisis. The most influential aspects of research are virus and protein interaction maps and the effects of the pandemic on economics and psychology. The main search stream is COVID-19 and its effects on health. This study has practical implications for policymakers and governments in implementing social policies to reduce anxiety in social situations among households and protect public health.