Consolidation in a crisis: Patterns of international collaboration in early COVID-19 research.

Caroline V Fry,Caroline S Wagner,Xiaojing Cai,Yi Zhang,Lutz Bornmann

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0236307

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand whether a catastrophic and urgent event, such as the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerates or reverses trends in international collaboration, especially in and between China and the United States. A review of research articles produced in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic shows that COVID-19 research had smaller teams and involved fewer nations than pre-COVID-19 coronavirus research. The United States and China were, and continue to be in the pandemic era, at the center of the global network in coronavirus related research, while developing countries are relatively absent from early research activities in the COVID-19 period. Not only are China and the United States at the center of the global network of coronavirus research, but they strengthen their bilateral research relationship during COVID-19, producing more than 4.9% of all global articles together, in contrast to 3.6% before the pandemic. In addition, in the COVID-19 period, joined by the United Kingdom, China and the United States continued their roles as the largest contributors to, and home to the main funders of, coronavirus related research. These findings suggest that the global COVID-19 pandemic shifted the geographic loci of coronavirus research, as well as the structure of scientific teams, narrowing team membership and favoring elite structures. These findings raise further questions over the decisions that scientists face in the formation of teams to maximize a speed, skill trade-off. Policy implications are discussed.

Highlights

The global pandemic caused by the widespread coronavirus, COVID-19, stimulated extraordinary amounts of scientific inquiry around the world
As the two nations that experienced the earliest outbreaks of the virus, this suggests that a need for solutions and access to patient populations can stimulate research productivity in a topic
It is clear that China takes the lead on research publications during the COVID-19 period, with the percentage of Chinese articles growing to 39% from 22% prior to Authors China Authors OECD Authors United States Authors United Kingdom Authors Italy Authors Asia, not China Authors, not China NOR Europe NOR OECD

Summary

Introduction

The global pandemic caused by the widespread coronavirus, COVID-19, stimulated extraordinary amounts of scientific inquiry around the world. The virus first appeared in the scholarly literature on the 24 January 2020 [1], and subsequently, virologists and immunologists worked to isolate and identify the virus, determine its etiology, define the vulnerabilities that may allow treatment, and conduct research on drug and vaccine development.

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