The reproduction number serves as a fundamental metric in the examination of infectious disease outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. Despite an array of available methods for estimating equation M2, both newcomers and established public health professionals often encounter difficulties in comprehending the circumstances for their use and their constrictions. Consequently, this review intends to offer elementary guidance on equation M3’s selection and estimation approaches. To facilitate our review, we executed an extensive search on PubMed and Web of Science applying the following search approach: [“Basic Reproduction Number/classification”(Mesh)] AND [“Basic Reproduction Number/prevention and control”(Mesh)] OR [“Basic Reproduction Number/statistics and numerical data”(Mesh)]. Our search parameters were restricted to articles published from January 2013 to January 2023. This search rendered a total of 7,094 articles, of which we selected 60 that met our inclusion standards for further analysis.
