Scientometric Trends for Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Viral Infections [article]

Dima Kagan, Jacob Moran-Gilad, Michael Fire
2020 bioRxiv   pre-print
COVID-19 is the most rapidly expanding coronavirus outbreak in the past two decades. To provide a swift response to a novel outbreak, prior knowledge from similar outbreaks is essential. Here, we study the volume of research conducted on previous coronavirus outbreaks, specifically SARS and MERS, relative to other infectious diseases by analyzing over 45 million papers from the last 20 years. Our results demonstrate that previous coronavirus outbreaks have been understudied compared to other
more » ... uses. We also show that the research volume of emerging infectious diseases is very high after an outbreak and drops 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. Independent of the outcome of the current COVID-19 outbreak, we believe that measures should be taken to encourage sustained research in the field.
doi:10.1101/2020.03.17.995795 fatcat:xz6wruk6d5bcfp7pbmshtqkkem