Covidization and decovidization of the scientific literature and scientific workforce
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We examined the growth trajectory and impact of COVID-19-related papers in the scientific literature until August 1, 2024 and how the scientific workforce was engaged in this work. Scopus indexed 718,660 COVID-19-related publications. As proportion of all indexed scientific publications, COVID-19-related publications peaked in September 2021 (4.7%) remained at 4.3-4.6% for another year and then gradually declined, but was still 1.9% in July 2024). COVID-19-related publications included 1,978,612 unique authors: 1,127,215 authors had ≥5 full papers in their career and 53,418 authors were in the top-2% of their scientific subfield based on a career-long composite citation indicator. Authors with >10%, >30% and >50% of their total career citations be to COVID-19-related publications were 376,942, 201,702, and 125,523, respectively. As of August 1, 2024, 65 of the top-100 most-cited papers published in 2020 were COVID-19-related, declining to 24/100, 19/100, 7/100, and 5/100 for the most-cited papers published in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. Across 174 scientific subfields, 132 had ≥10% of their active influential (top-2% by composite citation indicator) authors publish something on COVID-19 during 2020-2024. Among the 300 authors with highest composite citation indicator specifically for their COVID-19-related publications, 41 were editors or journalists/columnists and another 23 had most of their COVID-19 citations to published items other than full papers (opinion pieces/letters/notes). COVID-19 massively engaged the scientific workforce in unprecedented ways. As the pandemic ended, there has been a sharp decline in the overall volume and high impact of newly published COVID-19-related publications.
Significance statement
COVID-19 massively mobilized the scientific workforce. Between 2020 and 2024, over 700,000 papers were published on COVID-19, including 2 million different authors. Across science, almost a third of authors at the top-2% of citation impact in their subfield published on COVID-19. There was a sharp decline in the proportion of COVID-19 papers across science after 2022 and an even more sharp decline in the proportion of COVID-19 papers reaching the highest level of citations. Authors with the highest COVID-19 citation impact prominently included many who were editors, journalists/columnists and opinion writers publishing massively. While other epidemics also witnessed sharp increases and subsequent decline in interest, the magnitude of the covidization and decovidization process is unique in the scientific literature to-date.
