Historical developments, hotspots, and trends in infodemic scientific publications: A bibliometric analysis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 GMU

2 Assistant Prof., Knowledge and Information Science Department, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

10.30476/jhmi.2024.103250.1225

Abstract

Introduction: With the prevalence of global crises, an overwhelming influx of both reliable and unreliable information occurs, referred to as an infodemic. Given the significance of the infodemic phenomenon, this study examines trends in the dissemination of scientific publications on infodemics.
Methods: This study is a descriptive and analytical study conducted with a bibliometric approach. The study population included all scientific publications on infodemic in the Web of Science database until July 15, 2023. The data analysis was performed using the bibliometrix package in the R software.
Results: 1157 scientific publications on infodemics have been extracted since 2019, with the highest number of publications occurring in 2021. The majority of these publications were articles. The most important keywords in infodemic scientific publications were "health," "information," "news," "social media," and "communications." The keywords during the 2019-2020 outbreak period were "outbreak," "information," and "COVID-19." In the year 2021, the keywords were "health," "determinants," and "news." During 2022, the keywords were "information," "impact," and "health literacy." In the year 2023, the keywords were "attitudes," "health," and "African-American."
Conclusion: Infodemic research seeks to utilize new and updated data in the field of health and medicine, as well as develop methods to combat infodemics. This study offers a more accurate understanding of this field and provides valuable information for future interdisciplinary and medical research.

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