Abstract
BackgroundSince the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, a large number of COVID-19-related papers have been published. However, concerns about the risk of expedited science have been raised. We aimed at reviewing and categorizing COVID-19-related medical research and to critically appraise peer-reviewed original articles.MethodsThe data sources were Pubmed, Cochrane COVID-19 register study, arXiv, medRxiv and bioRxiv, from 01/11/2019 to 01/05/2020. Peer-reviewed and preprints publications related to COVID-19 were included, written in English or Chinese. No limitations were placed on study design. Reviewers screened and categorized studies according to i) publication type, ii) country of publication, and iii) topics covered. Original articles were critically appraised using validated quality assessment tools.ResultsAmong the 11,452 publications identified, 10,516 met the inclusion criteria, among which 7468 (71.0%) were peer-reviewed articles. Among these, 4190 publications (56.1%) did not include any data or analytics (comprising expert opinion pieces). Overall, the most represented topics were infectious disease (n = 2326, 22.1%), epidemiology (n = 1802, 17.1%), and global health (n = 1602, 15.2%). The top five publishing countries were China (25.8%), United States (22.3%), United Kingdom (8.8%), Italy (8.1%) and India (3.4%). The dynamic of publication showed that the exponential growth of COVID-19 peer-reviewed articles was mainly driven by publications without original data (mean 261.5 articles ± 51.1 per week) as compared with original articles (mean of 69.3 ± 22.3 articles per week). Original articles including patient data accounted for 713 (9.5%) of peer-reviewed studies. A total of 576 original articles (80.8%) showed intermediate to high risk of bias. Last, except for simulation studies that mainly used large-scale open data, the median number of patients enrolled was of 102 (IQR = 37–337).ConclusionsSince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of research is composed by publications without original data. Peer-reviewed original articles with data showed a high risk of bias and included a limited number of patients. Together, these findings underscore the urgent need to strike a balance between the velocity and quality of research, and to cautiously consider medical information and clinical applicability in a pressing, pandemic context.Systematic review registrationhttps://osf.io/5zjyx/
Highlights
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, a large number of COVID-19-related papers have been published
Identification and categorization of COVID-19 related publications A total of 11,452 peer-reviewed or preprints references made available from 1 November 2019 to 1 May 2020 have been identified with our search strategy
Studies not related to COVID-19, studies written in a language different than English or Chinese, and protocols, 10,516 references remained of which 7468 (71.0%) were peer-reviewed articles
Summary
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, a large number of COVID-19-related papers have been published. A huge worldwide effort has been launched to address the unmet need for improving diagnosis, understanding the determinants, prognosis, pathogenicity of COVID-19 infection, and thereby optimizing decision-making and patient management, therapeutics and prevention of the disease [3] In this context, while health systems are still adjusting to the pandemic situation, medical research and peerreview process have shown an unprecedented acceleration to ease scientific communication [4] with many topics around COVID-19 covered [5,6,7]. Despite the vast investment by government agencies and private consortiums to trace the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths in real-time, and efforts to share data worldwide, concerns about the risk of expedited science have been raised [8,9,10]. Among articles with data, concerns have been expressed about their methodology and asymmetry between scientific content and claims for utility [11, 17]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
