A Literature Review of Social Network Analysis in Epidemic Prevention and Control

Studying the structure and evolution characteristics of social networks is of great significance in assessing and controlling the outbreak of infectious diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to find research trends in this field. In this study, 1,752 documents (2001–2020) related to the relationship between the social network and epidemic published from Scopus, WOS (Web of Science), and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) databases were studied to provide a more comprehensive overview of the frontiers of research in this field, including epidemics in social networks, spread of disease, influence of different factors on the spread of the epidemic, prevention and control strategies of the epidemic, and comparison of various strategies. Besides, several new research directions in this field worthy of attention of researchers are discussed.