A Bibliometric and Altmetrics Analysis of Highly Cited Articles in the Field of Infectious Diseases

Background and Aim: Infectious Diseases are among the diseases involved in public health and a high percentage of causes of death worldwide are attributed to these diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of highly cited articles in the field of infectious diseases based on bibliometrics and Altmetrics indicators. Materials and Methods: This descriptive-analytical research was applied research that has been done using bibliometrics and Altmetrics methods. The research population included 687 highly cited articles indexed on the Web of Science (WOS) database between 2010-2020. Web of Science database and Bookmarklet tool was used for data collection and VOSviewer, Excel, and SPSS software were used for data analysis. Results: The production process of highly cited articles have had an upward trend. The highest publication rate was in 2020 and the lowest in 2010. The United States published the largest number of articles with 49%, and Lisa Maragakis and Deborah Yokoe were among the most prolific writers. The Lancet Infectious Diseases Magazine and the Center Disease Control Prevention Institute have contributed the most to the publication of articles citing infectious diseases. Vocabulary: COVID 19, epidemiology, disease, mortality, and infection were the most widely used terms in the field of infectious diseases. Mendeley and Twitter were also among the most important social media sites that cited highly cited articles. Conclusion: The results showed that there is a significant relationship between Altmetrics indices and the number of citations. Also, by identifying the characteristics of highly cited articles in the field of infectious diseases, an attempt has been made to provide a clear view of the top authors, countries, institutions, and journals, and of course, researchers can use the hot and emerging topics identified in this research in future research.