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Characteristics of scientific articles on COVID-19 published during the initial 3 months of the pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Di Girolamo

    (Oklahoma State University
    EBMVet)

  • Reint Meursinge Reynders

    (University of Amsterdam
    Private Practice of Orthodontics)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by an unprecedented amount of published scientific articles. The aim of this study is to assess the type of articles published during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare them with articles published during 2009 H1N1 swine influenza pandemic. Two operators independently extracted and assessed all articles on COVID-19 and on H1N1 swine influenza that had an abstract and were indexed in PubMed during the first 3 months of these pandemics. Of the 2482 articles retrieved on COVID-19, 1165 were included. Over half of them were secondary articles (590, 50.6%). Common primary articles were: human medical research (340, 59.1%), in silico studies (182, 31.7%) and in vitro studies (26, 4.5%). Of the human medical research, the vast majority were observational studies and cases series, followed by single case reports and one randomized controlled trial. Secondary articles were mainly reviews, viewpoints and editorials (373, 63.2%). Limitations were reported in 42 out of 1165 abstracts (3.6%), with 10 abstracts reporting actual methodological limitations. In a similar timeframe, there were 223 articles published on the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. During the COVID-19 pandemic there was a higher prevalence of reviews and guidance articles and a lower prevalence of in vitro and animal research studies compared with the H1N1 pandemic. In conclusions, compared to the H1N1 pandemic, the majority of early publications on COVID-19 does not provide new information, possibly diluting the original data published on this disease and consequently slowing down the development of a valid knowledge base on this disease. Also, only a negligible number of published articles reports limitations in the abstracts, hindering a rapid interpretation of their shortcomings. Researchers, peer reviewers, and editors should take action to flatten the curve of secondary articles.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Di Girolamo & Reint Meursinge Reynders, 2020. "Characteristics of scientific articles on COVID-19 published during the initial 3 months of the pandemic," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 795-812, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:125:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-020-03632-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-020-03632-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Elaine M Beller & Paul P Glasziou & Douglas G Altman & Sally Hopewell & Hilda Bastian & Iain Chalmers & Peter C Gøtzsche & Toby Lasserson & David Tovey & for the PRISMA for Abstracts Group, 2013. "PRISMA for Abstracts: Reporting Systematic Reviews in Journal and Conference Abstracts," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-8, April.
    2. Daniel Sarewitz, 2016. "The pressure to publish pushes down quality," Nature, Nature, vol. 533(7602), pages 147-147, May.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Massimo Riccaboni & Luca Verginer, 2022. "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific research in the life sciences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. , Aisdl, 2020. "Let’s Do Better: Public Representations of COVID-19 Science," OSF Preprints 3cpvs, Center for Open Science.
    4. Kayvan Kousha & Mike Thelwall & Matthew Bickley, 2022. "The high scholarly value of grey literature before and during Covid-19," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3489-3504, June.
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    6. Breno Santana Santos & Ivanovitch Silva & Luciana Lima & Patricia Takako Endo & Gisliany Alves & Marcel da Câmara Ribeiro-Dantas, 2022. "Discovering temporal scientometric knowledge in COVID-19 scholarly production," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1609-1642, March.
    7. Mona Farouk Ali, 2022. "Between panic and motivation: did the first wave of COVID-19 affect scientific publishing in Mediterranean countries?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3083-3115, June.
    8. Vicente Rodriguez-Rodriguez & Fermina Rojo-Perez & Carmen Perez de Arenaza Escribano & María-Ángeles Molina-Martínez & Gloria Fernandez-Mayoralas & Diego Sánchez-González & Jose-Manuel Rojo-Abuin & Ca, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Nursing Homes: Study Design and Population Description," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-17, December.
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    10. Yves Fassin, 2021. "Research on Covid-19: a disruptive phenomenon for bibliometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 5305-5319, June.

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