Dynamics of the COVID -19 Related Publications

  1. Biplab Sarkar
  2. Anusheel Munshi
  3. Bhaswar Ghosh
  4. Tharmarnadar Ganesh
  5. Arjunan Manikandan
  6. Subhra Singhdha Biswal
  7. Tanweer Sahid
  8. B Rajagopalan
  9. Sinjini Snegupta
  10. Sandipan Raychaudhuri
  11. Jibak Bhattacharya
  12. Mahasin Gazi
  13. Arundhati De
  14. Kirubha George
  15. Tanmay Ghosh
  16. Jawed Akhtar
  17. Sourav Mondal
  18. Mukti Mukherjee
  19. Rosalima Gupta
  20. Soumya Roy
  21. Kanan Jassal
  22. Khushboo Rastogi
  23. Kanika Bansal
  24. Prasenjit Chatterjee
  25. Litan Naha Biswas
  26. Shymasish Bondopadhay
  27. Anirudh Pradhan
  28. Bidhu Kalyan Mohanti
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Abstract

Background

This study aims to analyze the dynamics of the published articles and preprints of Covid-19 related literature from different scientific databases and sharing platforms.

Methods

The PubMed, Elsevier, and Research Gate (RG) databases were under consideration in this study over a specific time. Analyses were carried out on the number of publications as (a) function of time (day), (b) journals and (c) authors. Doubling time of the number of publications was analyzed for PubMed “all articles” and Elsevier published articles. Analyzed databases were (1A) PubMed “all articles” (01/12/2019-12/06/2020) (1B) PubMed Review articles (01/12/2019-2/5/2020) and (1C) PubMed Clinical Trials (01/01/2020-30/06/2020) (2) Elsevier all publications (01/12/2019-25/05/2020) (3) RG (Article, Pre Print, Technical Report) (15/04/2020–30/4/2020).

Findings

Total publications in the observation period for PubMed, Elsevier, and RG were 23000, 5898 and 5393 respectively. The average number of publications/day for PubMed, Elsevier and RG were 70.0 ±128.6, 77.6±125.3 and 255.6±205.8 respectively. PubMed shows an avalanche in the number of publication around May 10, number of publications jumped from 6.0±8.4/day to 282.5±110.3/day. The average doubling time for PubMed, Elsevier, and RG was 10.3±4 days, 20.6 days, and 2.3±2.0 days respectively. In PubMed average articles/journal was 5.2±10.3 and top 20 authors representing 935 articles are of Chinese descent. The average number of publications per author for PubMed, Elsevier, and RG was 1.2±1.4, 1.3±0.9, and 1.1±0.4 respectively. Subgroup analysis, PubMed review articles mean and median review time for each article were <0|17±17|77> and 13.9 days respectively; and reducing at a rate of-0.21 days (count)/day.

Interpretation

Although the disease has been known for around 6 months, the number of publications related to the Covid-19 until now is huge and growing very fast with time. It is essential to rationalize the publications scientifically by the researchers, authors, reviewers, and publishing houses.

Funding

None

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