A systematic review of studies on stress during the COVID-19 pandemic by visualizing their structure through COOC, VOS viewer, and Cite Space software

We present VOSviewer, a freely available computer program that we have developed for constructing and viewing bibliometric maps. Unlike most computer programs that are used for bibliometric mapping, VOSviewer pays special attention to the graphical representation of bibliometric maps. The functionality of VOSviewer is especially useful for displaying large bibliometric maps in an easy-to-interpret way. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, an overview of VOSviewer’s functionality for displaying bibliometric maps is provided. In the second part, the technical implementation of specific parts of the program is discussed. Finally, in the third part, VOSviewer’s ability to handle large maps is demonstrated by using the program to construct and display a co-citation map of 5,000 major scientific journals.

Highlights • Commonly reported symptoms are headache, throat pain and lethargy. • A large number of healthcare workers report more than four symptoms. • Those with physical symptoms had higher rates of depression, anxiety, stress, PTSD. • Those with physical symptoms had higher mean scores in the IES-R, DASS subscales. • Association between physical symptoms and psychological outcomes may be bidirectional.