Bibliometric analysis of coronavirus disease 2019 medical research production from Saudi Arabia

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and as an attempt to fill the knowledge gap related to this topic, extensive research in this area has been published. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as one of the countries affected by the pandemic, has contributed to the growing body of scientific literature related to COVID-19. To measure research contribution produced by Saudi Arabian affiliated researchers, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 research across two databases: the Web of Science and Scopus. Analysis was conducted on February 2, 2021 and included all relevant COVID-19-related publications (n = 1510). The majority of publications were research articles with the average number of citations per publication of 4.8, an authorship collaboration dimension of 5.49 authors per publication, collaboration index of 6.0, and 5.6 mean total citations per year. Further analysis showed that 89.5% of publications were multi-authored reflecting the importance of substantial efforts made toward research collaboration