Representation of specialties in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) research: analysis of published literature in the first 3 months

J. Robles, G. Aggarwal, S. Aggarwal

Department of Medicine, UnityPoint Clinic, Des Moines, IA, USA. drsaurabhaggarwal@gmail.com

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• Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected more than 1.5 million patients worldwide and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The volume of research published in a specialty, which may shed light on the perceived impact that a topic plays within that discipline, is unknown for the present pandemic.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed all articles published in the first 3 months on COVID-19 and categorized them by journal type and article content.
RESULTS: There was a ~100-fold difference in articles published on COVID when categorized by journal type and ~65-fold difference when grouped by article content.
CONCLUSIONS: There is a wide variation in research published withing various specialties regarding COVID-19. Researchers across specialties need to urgently realize the impact of COVID-19 and publish articles that can help improve understanding of this ongoing pandemic.

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