Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination in patients with rheumatic diseases: A bibliometric-based analysis of trends

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in patients with rheumatic disease is of practical clinical importance. This study aimed to perform a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rheumatic disease and indicate possible directions for future studies. Methods: Research articles and reviews related to COVID-19 vaccinations in patients with rheumatic diseases were retrieved from Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science Core Collection. The CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to depict network mapping showing the collaborations among countries, institutions, and authors. Current hotspots and future directions were derived by analyzing highly cited/co-cited documents and keywords. Results: In total, 615 documents published in 194 academic journals, including 505 articles and 110 reviews contributed by 5068 authors from 1693 institutions in 79 countries/regions, were finally included and analyzed. The United States and the University of London were the most productive country and cooperative institution, respectively. Author analysis showed that cooperation between different authors was largely confined to only several groups. Vaccines and Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology were the journals with the most publications and citations per document, respectively. Cluster analysis showed that the keywords can be categorized into groups like kidney disease, antibody response, COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination, validation, safety, and giant cell arteritis. Conclusions: The efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rheumatic disease are being continuously investigated. Future studies on COVID-19 vaccination in patients with rheumatic diseases could focus on antibody response, validation, and vaccine safety.