The ascendancy of research in acronyms related to COVID-19 displayed on a growth-share matrix (GSM): Bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: The acronym COVID, which stands for coronavirus disease, has become one of the most infamous acronyms in the world since 2020. An analysis of acronyms in health and medical journals has previously found that acronyms have become more common in titles and abstracts over time (e.g., DNA and human immunodeficiency virus are the most common acronyms). However, the trends in acronyms related to COVID remain unclear. It is necessary to verify whether the dramatic rise in COVID-related research can be observed by visualizations. The purpose of this study was to display the acronym trends in comparison through the use of temporal graphs and to verify that the COVID acronym has a significant edge over the other 2 in terms of research dominance. Methods: An analysis of the 30 most frequently used acronyms related to COVID in PubMed since 1950 was carried out using 4 graphs to conduct this bibliometric analysis, including line charts, temporal bar graphs (TBGs), temporal heatmaps (THM), and growth-share matrices (GSM). The absolute advantage coefficient (AAC) was used to measure the dominance strength for COVID acronym since 2020. COVID’s AAC trend was expected to decline over time. Results: This study found that COVID, DNA, and human immunodeficiency virus have been the most frequently observed research acronyms since 2020, followed by computed tomography and World Health Organization; although there is no ideal method for displaying acronym trends over time, researchers can utilize the GSM to complement traditional line charts, TBGs, and THMs, as shown in this study; and COVID has a significant edge over the other 2 in terms of research dominance by ACC (≥0.67), but COVID’s AAC trend has declined (e.g., AACs 0.83, 0.80, and 0.69) since 2020. Conclusions: It is recommended that the GSM complement traditional line charts, TBGs, and THMs in trend analysis, rather than being restricted to acronyms in future research. This research provides readers with the AAC to understand how research dominates its counterparts, which will be useful for future bibliometric analyses.