A scientometric approach to psychological research during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, modern science demonstrated its ability to respond well to the health crisis by publishing useful and reliable information. This disease has also led to an increase in psychological publications in this field. However, most scientometric studies have focused on medical aspects, and social science research has been neglected. Therefore, to fill this research gap, we analyzed the research on COVID-19 in the field of psychology to provide an insight into the perspective, research fields, and international collaborations. Data were collected from the Web of Science database and analyzed using Citespace and Bibliometrix (Biblioshiny). The overall performance of the documents was described, and then keyword co-occurrence and co-authorship networks were visualized. Fifteen main clusters were formed by drawing document co-citation network. The result indicates that Anxiety, mental health, delirium, loneliness, and suicide were important topics for researchers. Considering the special conditions that COVID-19 created for human societies, perhaps one of the most important subjects in the field of health is psychological studies. Using the results of this study, psychology researchers can identify their potential colleagues and research gaps in the subject of Covid-19.

COVID-19 citation pandemic within the psychological knowledge domain

Presented study explores the knowledge domain of psychological research published in 2020 and 2021. Metadata from 156,942 psychology papers available in Scopus were analyzed using citation analysis and bibliographic mapping techniques. Having in mind the ubiquity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous ways it has affected people's lives, the fact that COVID-19-related papers represent only 2% to 7% of the total academic production in psychology may seem rather low. However, these papers have attracted much more attention from the public than non-COVID papers. They were also cited two to eight times more frequently, depending on the measure used, and account for 16% to 19% of total citations to psychology papers. Results show that early-stage researchers and those who had fewer articles in Scopus have benefited more from publishing COVID papers. They have managed to boost their average citation rates to the level of their colleagues who were much longer active and previously had higher citedness. Results indicate that the authors citing behavior largely follows the cumulative advantage pattern. Psychological research in general is mainly focused on mental health, anxiety, depression, and stress. This trend is even more fostered due to the pandemic since some of these topics are often analyzed as typical emotional reactions to COVID-19. Other relevant issues are also very well covered, except for the question how scientific results are communicated to the public. The role of "hot" papers was elaborated from the perspective of research evaluation practice.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03146-3.

[Ethics review in psychological research]

Psychology, as a fundamental and applied science, studies the behavior of humans with empirical and experimental methods. To this end, volunteers are recruited who reveal information about themselves in either natural or experimental settings. Like medical research, psychological research must obey strict ethical principles (according to the Declaration of Helsinki), because it concerns the self-determination, mental, and physical integrity and privacy of the participants.An assessment of psychological research projects according to ethical criteria is therefore mandatory. Research projects must (i) respect the autonomy and dignity of a person, (ii) promise a substantial gain in knowledge, and (iii) maximize the benefits of the research by minimizing possible disadvantages for the participants; (iv) researchers - committed to their social responsibility - must anticipate the social implications of research findings (possibilities of "dual use").Local ethics committees (LECs) for research projects in psychology work on behalf of a university or faculty. They are to be set up as an independent body. The assessment of ethical safety requires the scientific quality of a research project, but must take into account additional considerations. In this respect, it seems sensible that projects that are to be funded by a third-party funder first establish the scientific eligibility and only then the ethical safety by a LEC.

Struggles for Equal Rights and Social Justice as Unrepresented and Represented in Psychological Research

Issues of equality and social justice remain important concerns for contemporary societies. Struggles for equal rights and fair treatment continue in both organized movements and in acts of everyday life. We first consider trends in psychological research that fail to address such struggles and may even impede theoretical understanding of the complex processes of thought and action involved when individuals confront situations of welfare, justice, and rights. Then, we consider research, which attempts to address these issues. We review studies on the development of moral judgments and on understandings of equality and distributive justice. We also discuss research that accounts for the varying social contexts of individual lives and conceives of human behavior as engaged in moral judgments, which often produce resistance and opposition to injustice. In conclusion, we call for more attention in psychological research to issues of equity and social justice.