COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the world. Health systems were not the only ones being disturbed. Many collateral effects have been reported, such as familial, academical, social, political and economic troubles.
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In contrast, scientific research has never been so dynamic, allowing to create effective vaccines in less than one year.2
However, we hypothesized that there was a price to pay even in the field of scientific research. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the debt induced on medical publications getting out of the field of COVID-19 pandemic.We chose to analyze the main journals publishing in medical specialties that were the most directly facing the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., internal/general, emergency, critical care, respiratory and infectious disease medicine. Therefore, we selected the three journals from each specialty with the highest impact factor (2018), regardless of their potential specific scopes. We compared the total number of papers indexed in the last 6 months (Pubmed – June 1st to November 24th, 2020) with those indexed in the same period in 2019. The goal was to study the changes in the number of papers, the space dedicated to COVID-19 pandemic in each specialty, and the remaining space allocated to non-COVID-19 papers.
In all medical editions, we recorded 718,367 papers published in 2019 and 865,567 (+20%) in 2020. The number of COVID-19 ones reached 60,600 (8%). Among selected journals, the total number of articles was highly variable in both, specialties and journals (p < 0.0001), same as the ratio of COVID-19 papers (p < 0.0001). The global increase was maximal in critical care medicine (+75%) and infectious diseases journals (+113%), peaking at 163%. The respiratory medicine journals group had the highest ratio of COVID-19 articles (53%), peaking at 75%. After data weighting, a drastic decrease in non-COVID-19 papers appeared in emergency, generalist, and respiratory medicine journals (−22%, −34% and −43%, respectively). Results are detailed in Table 1.
Table 1Number of papers published in 2019 and 2020 (Pubmed – June 1st to November 24th) by specialties directly facing COVID-19 pandemic; ratio of COVID-19 papers and impact on non-COVID-19 ones.
| Specialty | Journal | Impact factor (2018) | 2019 (n) | 2020 (n (% vs. 2019)) | COVID (n (%)) | Weighted for non-COVID papers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General medicine | New Engl J Med | 70.7 | 742 | 889 (+20%) | 272 (31%) | −17% |
| Lancet | 59.1 | 874 | 735 (−16%) | 269 (37%) | −47% | |
| JAMA | 51.3 | 869 | 882 (+1%) | 313 (35%) | −35% | |
| Total | 2485 | 2506 (+1%) | 854 (34%) | −34% | ||
| Emergency medicine | Ann Emerg Med | 5.3 | 305 | 278 (−9%) | 38 (14%) | −21% |
| Resuscitation | 4.6 | 328 | 340 (+4%) | 66 (19%) | −16% | |
| Emergencias | 3.4 | 42 | 46 (+10%) | 11 (24%) | −17% | |
| Total | 675 | 632 (−6%) | 108 (17%) | −22% | ||
| Critical care medicine | Intensive Care Med | 19 | 280 | 313 (+12%) | 113 (36%) | −29% |
| Am J Respir Crit Care Med | 16.5 | 355 | 695 (+96%) | 152 (22%) | +53% | |
| Chest | 9.7 | 338 | 694 (+105%) | 92 (13%) | +78% | |
| Total | 973 | 1702 (+75%) | 357 (21%) | +38% | ||
| Respiratory medicine | Lancet Respir Med | 16.5 | 186 | 153 (−18%) | 113 (74%) | −78% |
| J Thorac Oncol | 12.5 | 240 | 204 (−15%) | 152 (75%) | −78% | |
| Eur Respir J | 11.8 | 282 | 500 (+77%) | 150 (30%) | +24% | |
| Total | 708 | 857 (+21%) | 452 (53%) | −43% | ||
| Infectious diseases | Lancet Infect Dis | 27.5 | 285 | 399 (+40%) | 157 (39%) | −15% |
| Lancet HIV | 14.8 | 203 | 276 (+36%) | 33 (12%) | +20% | |
| Clin Infect Dis | 9 | 722 | 1906 (+164%) | 492 (26%) | +96% | |
| Total | 1210 | 2581 (+113%) | 682 (26%) | +57% | ||
| All together | 4841 | 8278 (+71%) | 2453 (30%) | +20% | ||
In many journals among those selected, the global increase in the number of papers published did not compensate the place specifically dedicated to COVID-19 papers. Consequently, the publication of non-COVID-19 papers might have been slowed down, or even stopped, particularly in emergency, generalist or respiratory medicine editions. The result seems to be much more related to journal policy than to specialty strategy.
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Physicians, researchers and editors should be aware of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical research, and should not underestimate its impact.3
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Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
References
- Science misuse and polarised political narratives in the COVID-19 response.Lancet. 2020; 396: 1635-1636
- An mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 — preliminary report.N Engl J Med. 2020; 383: 1920-1931
- COVID-19: a stress test for trust in science.Lancet. 2020; 396 (19): 799
- Are all voices heard in the COVID-19 debate?.Scientometrics. 2020; : 1-4
Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 22, 2021
Received:
February 4,
2021
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© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
