A Torrent of Science Covid in Papers
Scientists raced to share their work on COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 virus, often through preprints — articles posted online before peer review. They 160 More than 30,000 COVID-19 published well over 100,000 articles articles were preprints; according COVID about the topic, and might even have to Dimensions, one-tenth of all passed 200,000 in December. preprints this year were about There was a sharp increase in articles COVID-19. More than half of the on all subjects submitted to scientific preprints appeared on medRxiv, journals this year. Submissions to SSRN or Research Square. IN A publisher Elsevier’s journals alone were up by around 270,000 — or 58% medRxiv SSRN arXiv Other — between February and May 24% 20% 8% 22% compared with 2019, for instance. Even so, around 4% of the world’s A O N research output was devoted to the coronavirus, according to the 120 Dimensions database. Research bioRxiv Square 8% O CI NC Cumulative number 18% of publications (thousands) An unprecedented COVID19 papers More than two-thirds of all the COVID19 preprints preprints posted on medRxiv, which only launched in June 2019, were ood of research on about COVID-19. the coronavirus medRxiv submissions swept websites and 80 COVID-19 papers Other papers Estimate from Dimensions 500 journals this year. database
By Holly Else 400
Estimate from PubMed index 40 300
200 Estimates from Dimensions Number of articles per week and N. Fraser 100 *Estimates di§er depending on search terms, database coverage, and definitions of what counts as a scientific article; some preprints were posted on multiple sites online. 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov 2020 2020 Journals rushed to get COVID-19 articles through peer Growth in submissions from female authors trailed behind growth Women review. A study of 11 medical journals in the first half of from male authors across all subject areas, according to an PhD students the year found that they had published coronavirus analysis of hundreds of thousands of papers sent to Elsevier . PREPRINT AT SSRN HTTPS://DOI.ORG/FNDQ (2020). SSRN HTTPS://DOI.ORG/FNDQ ET AL . PREPRINT AT papers much faster than normal, but at the expense of journals between February and May. This is probably because Men publishing other research more slowly. women shouldered the burden of childcare and home-schooling Doctor during lockdowns, says Flaminio Squazzoni, a social scientist at the Professor Publications: University of Milan, Italy, who co-authored the preprint analysis. Total COVID-19 Non-COVID-19 “We need to make sure these things are taken into account when promoting and hiring in the years ahead,” he says. 120
TABULATIONS/PRIMER (FOR PUBMED ESTIMATE); PREPRINTS, DIMENSIONS/N. FRASER & B. KRAMER. FRASER & B. KRAMER. PREPRINTS, DIMENSIONS/N. PUBMED ESTIMATE); (FOR TABULATIONS/PRIMER 40
NATURE 100
30 80
60 20
40 Increase in paper Increase
submissions 2019–20 (%) submissions 2019–20 10
Average acceptance time (days) Average 20
0 0 Jan Mar May Jan Mar May Health and medicine Life sciences Physical sciences Social sciences FIGSHARE HTTPS://DOI.ORG/FNKM (2020). PREPRINT RUSH: DIMENSIONS. MEDRXIV GROWTH: J. INGLIS, MEDRXIV. SPEEDY REVIEW: S. AVIV-REUVEN & A. ROSENFELD. & A. ROSENFELD. S. AVIV-REUVEN REVIEW: SPEEDY J. INGLIS, MEDRXIV. MEDRXIV GROWTH: DIMENSIONS. PREPRINT RUSH: (2020). FIGSHARE HTTPS://DOI.ORG/FNKM SQUAZZONI F. BURDEN: UNEQUAL (2020). HTTPS://ARXIV.ORG/ABS/2010.02594 PREPRINT AT SOURCES: MAIN GRAPHIC: JOURNAL PAPERS, DIMENSIONS & DIMENSIONS MAIN GRAPHIC: JOURNAL PAPERS, SOURCES: 2019 2020 and engineering and economics
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