Scientometric Mapping of Mucormycosis Research in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Mucormycosis is an invasive fungal infection that has shown a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive assessment of COVID-19 associated mucormycosis (CAM) research is lacking. Methods: We searched Elsevier’s Scopus database for publications on CAM using a pre-defined search strategy. Data on publications numbers, citation metrics, contributing countries, institutions, authors, journals, and the most cited articles were analyzed using select bibliometric tools. Results: Published CAM research included 253 publications. These were cited 1560 times, averaging 6.1 citations per paper. Only 33 (13%) were funded. Original articles (55.7%) and reviews (17.7%) constituted the major share of global output. The studied age groups included adults (22.5%), middle-aged (19.3%), elderly (10.6%), and adolescents (0.8%). Studies on treatment accounted for the largest share (58.5%), followed by clinical studies (28.0%), complications (17.3%), risk factors (11.7%), epidemiology (7.9%), and pathophysiology (3.1%). The participating countries were 64; India, the USA, and Egypt led in productivity, whereas France, the USA, and Iran were more impactful. Of the 84 organizations, the leading organizations were PGIMER-Chandigarh, AIIMS-New Delhi and Cairo University, Egypt. A. Chakrabarti, V. Muthu, and S.M. Rudramurthy were the most productive of 160 participating authors. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, and Journal of Fungi were the most active journals that published CAM research. Conclusion: Research on CAM has primarily been conducted in middleincome countries and is low on quality. High-income countries need to collaborate with lowand middle-income countries for a sustainable and universal CAM research impact. There is also a need to focus on research gaps such as pathophysiology and epidemiology in future CAM research.