Publication Patterns of Covid-19 Pandemic Research

Since the formation of the open access movement, extensive efforts have been made by the scientific community to provide open access to research publications. Open access to scientific information is one of the solutions that can lead to better visibility and use of knowledge by removing barriers to access. Dissemination of accurate and immediate scientific information about this emerging disease is very important and can help to assess and achieve solutions to control it, strong evidence, better information and support for public health decisions. Access to the maximum possible information about this disease is very important not only for the scientific community but also for everyone around the world. Open access allows researchers to engage with the rapidly growing research of Covid-19 and use relevant information to identify this new virus and reach solutions to the global health crisis. The unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the system of schientific communication and the disseminiation of research findings and the scientific community has taken many measures in order to access information related to this disease. The aim of this study is to investigate the publication patterns of Covid-19 pandemic research.

This exploratory study was conducted as a descriptive-analytical report using a scientometric approach. The research population of the study was comprised of Covid-19 related publications which were indexed in the Web of Science database from the beginning of 2020 to April 2021. Data collection was carried out using Web of Science and Unpaywall databases. The data was analyzed usnin Microsoft Excel and SPSS (version 23).

The findings showed that 92 percent of the examined articles in the area of COVID-19 pandemic have been published in one of the open access models. Over 40 percent of articles were published under the gold open access models, while 33 percent were bronze open access, 10 percent were green open access, and another 9 percent were hybrid open access. The results related to the fit of the publication model demonstrated the S-shape pattern of publications. Accordingly, we observed a slow publication pace in the early months of 2020 followed by a steady continuation of the publication speed during that year.

Non-open access articles accounted for only 8 percent of all COVID-19 related publications examined in this research. There has been a successful international agreement among scientific publishers regarding open access publication of the research findings related to COVID-19 pandemic. This can be considered as a remarkable achievement during the global crisis of the pandemic.