Radiology During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mapping Radiology Literature in 2020

Objectives: Our aim was to assess articles published in the field of radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging in 2020 and analyze the linkage of radiology-related topics with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) through literature mapping along with a bibliometric analysis for publications. Methods: We performed a search on the Web of Science Core Collection database for articles in the field of radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging published in 2020. We analyzed the included articles using VOS viewer software, where we analyzed the co-occurrence of keywords, representing major topics discussed. Of the resulting topics, a literature map was created and linkage analysis was done. Results: A total of 24,748 articles were published in the field of radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging in 2020. We found a total of 61,267 keywords; only 78 keywords occurred more than 250 times. COVID-19 had 449 occurrences, 29 links, with a total link strength of 271. MRI was the topic most commonly appearing in 2020 radiology publications, while “computed tomography” had the highest linkage strength with COVID-19, with a linkage strength of 149, representing 54.98% of the total COVID-19 linkage strength, followed by “radiotherapy, and “deep and machine learning”. The top cited paper had a total of 1,687 citations. Nine out of the 10 most cited articles discussed COVID-19 and included “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in their title, including the top cited paper. Conclusion: While MRI was the topic that dominated, CT had the highest linkage strength with COVID-19 and represented the topic of top cited articles in 2020 radiology publications.