Emoji: What does the Scientific Literature say about them? A new way to communicate in the 21th century

Communication is really complex and beyond the verbal communication, it involves the transmission of abstract and concrete information using both verbal and nonverbal symbols. In June-July 2017 we performed a systematic search in the electronic database PubMed in order to better understand the impact of “emoji” in the scientific community. We considered eligible for the systematic review original articles, letters, brief reports, short communications web articles (written in English, French, Italian or Spanish) without any temporal limit and using the keyword “emoji” The literature search yielded 5 publications. The studies were published between 2015 and 2017. Two authors tried to associate emoji to specific feelings. Huesch et al. analyzed 1.7 million unique interactions and stories associated with breast cancer screening keywords generated on Facebook. Skiba in his short communication describes the history of emoji and proposed to develop a set of emoji that could be used to improve the management of their patients’ health. Bourzac in her short communication, says that at the first-ever Emojicon in California, a group of science enthusiasts and designers worked on proposals for several new science-themed emoji, in order to better express themselves. Although the scientific literature about emoji is very few, their psychological and emotional significance is very fascinating, and they could have an interesting application in public health to improve the physician–patient interaction.