ArticleActa bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis2020
The runaway science: a bibliometric analysis of the COVID-19 scientific literature.
Article in Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Literature on the Early Phase of COVID-19 in Italy.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- Publications and retracted articles of COVID-19 pharmacotherapy-related research: A systematic review.Science progressPooled it
- Historiography of Scientific Publishing across Cultures and Disciplines.The Indian journal of radiology & imaging · 2025Article
- ''Coronary Blindness: Desensitization after excessive exposure to coronavirus-related information''.Health policy and technology · 2022Article
- A real world analysis of COVID-19 impact on hospitalizations in older adults with chronic conditions from an Italian region.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Publications of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies in Time of Pandemics: Implications for Teachers' Professional Publishing Activity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Contribution of Saudi Arabia to regional and global publications on COVID-19-related research: A bibliometric and visualization analysis.Journal of infection and public health · 2022Review
- Global analysis of the COVID-19 research landscape and scientific impact.American journal of infection control · 2022Article
- Effect of Housing Quality on the Mental Health of University Students during the COVID-19 Lockdown.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Living through and with the global HIV/AIDS pandemic: Distinct 'pandemic practices' and temporalities.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Article
- Machine learning reduced workload for the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register: development and evaluation of the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Classifier.Systematic reviews · 2022Article
- Gender Gap in Scientific Publications on COVID-19 in Italy During the First Wave of the Pandemic: An Observational Study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Observational
- Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine Use and Suicide Risk: Hypotheses for Confluent Etiopathogenetic Mechanisms?Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- COVID-19 pandemic impact on the therapeutic setting in Mental Health Services.Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2021Article
- Stigma, mental illness, and COVID-19 from a frontline clinician perspective: a way to go against the grain?Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis · 2021Article
- Is rapid scientific publication also high quality? Bibliometric analysis of highly disseminated COVID-19 research papers.Learned publishing : journal of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers · 2021Article
- Breaking community boundary: Comparing academic and social communication preferences regarding global pandemics.Journal of informetrics · 2021Article
- A Global Overview of COVID-19 Research in the Pediatric Field: Bibliometric Review.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2021Review
- Article
- Telehealth and Research in Orthopedics: New Means of Care Invites New Barriers to Evidence.HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background and aim of the workTo reflect on content, trends and quality of scientific publishing on COVID-19. In particular, to report on the systematic screening, quantitative assessment and critical appraisal of the first 10,000 scientific papers published on COVID-19 and to compare how scientific outputs matched identified research priorities and public health needs.
methodsA comprehensive research strategy was developed to systematically retrieve on a daily basis all studies published on COVID-19. From included studies we extracted: bibliometric parameters, country of studies' implementation and study design. We assigned papers to 25 a priori defined COVID-19-related topics and we described scientific outputs in relation to countries' academic publishing ranking, as well as COVID-19 burden.
results10,000 scientific articles were published on COVID-19 between 20th January and 7th May 2020, accounting for 2.3% of total scientific production over the study period. One third (33%) focused on COVID-19 clinical management, with little adherence to identified research priorities. Over sixty per cent of papers were opinion pieces not reporting original data. Papers were published on 1881 different journals but with half of scientific production included in 8% of journals. The US accounted for one fourth of total scientific production, followed by China (22.2%) and Italy (9%).
conclusionsNever before in the history of academic publishing such a great volume of research focused on a single topic, this being likely to introduce major changes in the way science is produced and communicated, at the risk of bringing it far from its ultimate aim: informing clinical and public health practice and decision making.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.