Analysis of COVID-19 publications in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology during two years of the pandemic and their impact on ophthalmic literature

Purpose: To perform a comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 publications published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (IJO) during the two years of the pandemic and to study their impact on ophthalmic literature. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of all expedited COVID-19 articles published in IJO from April 2020 to March 2022. The data was obtained from the official website of IJO, editor IJO monthly emails, and PubMed database. The data was then extracted as XML into Microsoft Access for scientometric analysis. The expedited articles were segregated into different categories: original, review, case report/series, letter to the editor, commentary, current ophthalmology, consensus criteria, perspective, innovations, ophthalmic images, photoessays, research methodology, and surgical techniques. The monthly data was analyzed and COVID-19 articles were assessed for subspecialty-wise distribution, number of citations, monthly growth rate, and their impact on ophthalmic literature. Results: A total of 431 COVID-19 related articles were published during the study period. The majority of the articles were letters to the editor (158, 36.65%) followed by original articles (97, 22.50%), and commentaries (53, 12.29%). The least were perspectives and ophthalmic images (2, 0.46%) each followed by consensus criteria (1, 0.23%). The maximum publications came in July 2020 (44, 10.20%) followed by December 2021 (37, 8.58%) and October 2021 (36, 8.35%), and the least were in April 2020 (1, 0.23%). Considering subspecialty, a majority of the articles were related to general ophthalmology (156, 36.19%), and the least was in oncology (2, 0.46%). The maximum number of citations were attracted by original articles (97, 1146 (11.81)), which were approximately 1.5 times higher than the letters to the editor (158, 743 (4.70)) and 3 times higher than review articles (9, 387 (43)). Among specialties, the maximum number of citations were gathered by general ophthalmology (156, 1320 (8.46)) followed by oculoplasty (36, 592 (16.44)) due to the concurrent mucormycosis epidemic. Conclusion: IJO opened a window of opportunity for authors by publishing quality expedited articles. Evidence-based orbital mucormycosis and general ophthalmology publications gathered most of the attention due to their heterogeneous presentation. The peak of the first wave (June–July 2020) and the October and December 2021 issues had maximum number of COVID-19 articles.