Scientific publication activity during COVID-19 shutdown
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EDITORIAL
Scientific publication activity during COVID‑19 shutdown Michael Böhm1 · Sebastian Ewen1 · Armin Schweitzer1 · Hugo Katus2
© The Author(s) 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the metropole area of Wuhan in the Chinese province Hubei with a rapid dissemination of the virus worldwide [1, 2] leading to a pandemic [3]. After an increase of cases in Europe and Germany [4, 5] warnings and recommendations to limit social contacts were issued. According to the fear of infection, there was a reduction of presentation in European and German emergency departments [6], which might have led to a collateral damage of COVID-19 [6]. Most congresses like the congress of the European Society of Cardiology, the American College of Cardiology and the German Cardiac Society were cancelled. Furthermore, there were travel restrictions by universities, industry and other healthcare institutions for doctors and scientists. Herein, we report the interesting consequence of travel restrictions and reductions of clinical and scientific meetings including smaller meetings like roundtables and advisory boards. During the three months of shutdown there was an increased submission rate of scientific manuscripts to Clinical Research in Cardiology (Fig. 1a). This trend was stable
over time and cannot be explained by an abnormal increase of submission rates to this Journal (Fig. 1b). In parallel, there was a shorter review time and shorter time to decision for acceptance or rejection of journal articles (Fig. 1c). As submissions in 50% of the cases come from other countries, the global shutdown had a positive effect of increased scientific writing activities as well as of accelerated handling of scientific information. This observation cannot lead to the conclusion that a shutdown improves scientific quality or activity but it could be an indication that travel and meeting activities and scientific writing and publishing are competing for time of authors, reviewers, scientists and clinicians. Herewith, the editors of Clinical Research in Cardiology like to express their gratitude to all authors, reviewers and staff of Springer Scientific Journals for putting so much effort in the generation of rapid review processes, high quality reviews and, thus, important contributions to clinical research and, thus, excellence in patient care.
* Michael Böhm [email protected] 1
Klinik für Innere Medizin III, Kardiologie, Angiologie und Internistische Intensivmedizin, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, Saarland University, Kirrberger Str. 1, 66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany
Department of Cardiology, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
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13
Vol.:(0123456789)
1444
Clinical Research in Cardiology (2020) 109:1443–1445
A 200
500
2019 2020
400
150
300 100 200 50
100 n=84
0
n=80
n=117
March
n=158
n=97
April
n=182
n=261
May
n=457
0
All
B Increase in monthly submissions between 01.2008 and 06.2020 n=183
180
n=190
200
2008−2019 2020
n=158
160 140
80
n=96
n=102
100
n=117
120
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