Abstract
BackgroundWhen a new or re-emergent pathogen, such as SARS-CoV-2, causes a major outbreak, rapid access to pertinent research findings is crucial for planning strategies and decision making. We researched whether the speed of sharing research results in the COVID-19 epidemic was higher than the SARS and Ebola epidemics. We also researched whether there is any difference in the most frequent topics investigated before and after the COVID-19, SARS, and Ebola epidemics started.MethodsWe used PubMed database search tools to determine the time-period it took for the number of articles to rise after the epidemics started and the most frequent topics assigned to the articles.ResultsThe main results were, first, the rise in the number of articles occurred 6 weeks after the COVID-19 epidemic started whereas, this rise occurred 4 months after the SARS and 7 months after the Ebola epidemics started. Second, etiology, statistics & numerical data, and epidemiology were the three most frequent topics investigated in the COVID-19 epidemic. However, etiology, microbiology, and genetics in the SARS epidemic, and statistics & numerical data, epidemiology, and prevention & control in the Ebola epidemic were more frequently studied compared with other topics. Third, some topics were studied more frequently after the epidemics started.ConclusionsThe speed of sharing results in the COVID-19 epidemic was much higher than the SARS and Ebola epidemics, and that there is a difference in the most frequent articles’ topics investigated in these three epidemics. Due to the value of time in controlling epidemics spread, the study highlights the necessity of defining more solutions for rapidly providing pertinent research findings in fighting against the next public health emergency.
Highlights
When a new or re-emergent pathogen, such as SARS-CoV-2, causes a major outbreak, rapid access to pertinent research findings is crucial for planning strategies and decision making
Study design To determine the speed of sharing research data and results in the COVID-19 epidemic, we measured the timelag between the epidemic start time and the rise in the number of coronavirus-related documents indexed in the PubMed database
After the epidemic start-time on 8th December 2019 [1, 16], the first week that showed a significant increase in the number of articles than the baseline was 19-25th December and, such increase was repeated in the weeks (Fig. 1)
Summary
When a new or re-emergent pathogen, such as SARS-CoV-2, causes a major outbreak, rapid access to pertinent research findings is crucial for planning strategies and decision making. Khanali et al BMC Public Health (2021) 21:105 proved that shortcomings in sharing data and research findings could lead to unnecessary suffering and death and disastrous public health consequences [5] Both the SARS and Ebola experiences were accompanied by late official reports of the epidemics, comparatively slow dissemination of surveillance data, unclear criteria for data sharing, and the unwillingness of several individuals and organizations to share vital data in real-time [6,7,8,9]. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors stated that pre-publication information that is critical for public health is to be shared with WHO– a commitment echoed by several leading journals in the context of the COVID-19 response [11]
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