key: cord-0897946-jorfgcfs
authors: Kang, Mohleen; Gurbani, Saumya S.; Kempker, Jordan A.
title: The Published Scientific Literature on COVID-19: An Analysis of PubMed Abstracts
date: 2020-11-25
journal: J Med Syst
DOI: 10.1007/s10916-020-01678-4
sha: 6cd4fecdf0b41de38f72f8538b035e092db26c99
doc_id: 897946
cord_uid: jorfgcfs

nan

[0.39%]). The preprint servers, medRxiv (609 [1.1%] ) and bioRxiv (479 [0.8%]), were among the top five sources with most publications.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented rate of scientific publication that has overwhelmed frontline providers and the public health community. Our analysis found a total of 57,263 articles in PubMed on COVID-19, compared to only 3386 articles regarding Influenza H1N1 pandemic during the initial 43-week period from April 20, 2009 to February 15, 2010 [1] .

Using the NLM's official search string in Medline, which is updated daily, we were able to capture the latest articles and ahead of print articles in our analysis. However, limiting our search to a single database also restricted our analysis to mostly English language articles, a majority of which were published in the US and a few European countries. While we did collect data on publication type, it was not adequately characterized for any meaningful interpretation. We also did not include all of the preprint servers in our search; however, PubMed now includes preprints from authors with either affiliation or support from the National Institute of Health as part of a new pilot program [2] . Preprint articles have become an increasingly popular avenue for researchers to share their findings before a formal peer review process and have emerged as significant drivers of discourse in the scientific community.

A number of free and easily downloadable article databases, notably from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even NLM, have been created to help clinicians and researchers parse through the plethora of information on COVID-19 [3] . However, these databases also contain thousands of articles, still making it difficult to efficiently search for answers to specific queries. Since there are still many unanswered questions regarding COVID-19, additional research will be needed. Concurrently, there is an emergent need to evaluate and prioritize the quality of the literature that is being published at an astronomical rate to help ease the burden on the consumers of this information who are Data availability The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author.

Conflict of interest Dr. Kempker has served as a consultant for Grifols, Inc. Dr. Kang declares that she has no conflict of interest. Dr. Gurbani declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Consent to participate Not applicable.

Code availability The custom R code used in the current study is available from the corresponding author.

Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Fig. 1 Weekly number of publications related to COVID-19 from January 1, 2020 to November 02, 2020 in PubMed. Legend: The x axis indicates the weeks from January 1, 2020 to November 02, 2020. Weeks are defined by the Monday to Sunday period with x-axis tick marks indicating the date of the Monday starting each week

? term=%28%28%28swine+OR+h1n1%29+AND+%28flu+OR+ influenza+OR+virus+OR+outbreak+OR+pandemic%29%29%29+ AND+%28%28%222009%2F04%2F20%22%5BDate+-+ Publication%5D+%3A+%222010%2F02%2F15%22%5BDate+-+ Publication%5D%29%29&sort=date Accessed

COVID-19 Research Articles Downloadable Database