Scientometric trends for coronaviruses and other emerging viral infections.

Dima Kagan,Michael Fire,Jacob Moran-Gilad

doi:10.1093/gigascience/giaa085

Dima Kagan, Michael Fire + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giaa085

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Journal: GigaScience	Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
Citations: 29	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Abstract

BackgroundCOVID-19 is the most rapidly expanding coronavirus outbreak in the past 2 decades. To provide a swift response to a novel outbreak, prior knowledge from similar outbreaks is essential.ResultsHere, we study the volume of research conducted on previous coronavirus outbreaks, specifically SARS and MERS, relative to other infectious diseases by analyzing >35 million articles from the past 20 years. Our results demonstrate that previous coronavirus outbreaks have been understudied compared with other viruses. We also show that the research volume of emerging infectious diseases is very high after an outbreak and decreases drastically upon the containment of the disease. This can yield inadequate research and limited investment in gaining a full understanding of novel coronavirus management and prevention.ConclusionsIndependent of the outcome of the current COVID-19 outbreak, we believe that measures should be taken to encourage sustained research in the field.

Highlights

Infectious diseases remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, in developed countries and in the developing world [1]
In contrast to the overall growth in the number of infectious disease papers, there has been a relative decline in the number of papers about the coronaviruses SARS and MERS
We found that 0.4% of virology studies in our corpus from the past 20 years involved human SARS and MERS, while HIV/AIDS accounts for 7.9 % of all virology studies

Summary

Introduction

Infectious diseases remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, in developed countries and in the developing world [1]. According to the World Health Organization, out of the top-10 causes of death globally, three are infectious diseases [1]. One approach is to gather data using different surveillance systems ProMED was launched 25 years ago as an email service to identify unusual worldwide health events related to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases [9]. It is used daily around the globe by public health policy makers, physicians, veterinarians, and other healthcare workers, researchers, private companies, journalists, and the general public. There are many different systems used by different countries and health organizations worldwide

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