Abstract

This study analyzed the research trends of COVID-19 research papers published in medical journals of Korea. Data were collected from 25 MEDLINE journals in ‘Medicine and Pharmacy’ studies and a total of 800 were selected. As a result of the study, authors from domestic affiliations made up 76.96% of the total, and the proportion of authors from foreign institutions decreased without significant change. The authors’ majors were ‘Internal Medicine’ (32.85%), ‘Preventive Medicine/Occupational and Environmental Medicine’ (16.23%), ‘Radiology’ (5.74%), and ‘Pediatrics’ (5.50%), and 435 (54.38%) papers were collaborative research. As for author keywords, ‘COVID19’ (674), ‘SARSCoV2’ (245), ‘Coronavirus’ (81), and ‘Vaccine’ (80) were derived as top keywords. There were six words that appeared throughout the entire period: ‘COVID19,’ ‘SARSCoV2,’ ‘Coronavirus,’ ‘Korea,’ ‘Pandemic,’ and ‘Mortality.’ Co-occurrence network analysis was conducted on MeSH terms and author keywords, and common keywords such as ‘covid-19,’ ‘sars-cov-2,’ and ‘public health’ were derived. In topic modeling, five topics were identified, including ‘Vaccination,’ ‘COVID-19 outbreak status,’ ‘Omicron variant,’ ‘Mental health, control measures,’ and ‘Transmission and control in Korea.’ Through this study, it was possible to identify the research areas and major keywords by year of COVID-19 research papers published during the ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).’