How has Covid-19 Affected Published Academic Research? A Content Analysis of Journal Articles Mentioning the Virus

Thelwall, M.; Thelwall, S.

Methods to tackle Covid-19 have been developed by a wave of biomedical research but the pandemic has also influenced many aspects of society, generating a need for research into its consequences, and potentially changing the way existing topics are investigated. This article investigates the nature of this influence on the wider academic research mission. This article reports an inductive content analysis of 500 randomly selected journal articles mentioning Covid-19, as recorded by the Dimensions scholarly database on 19 March 2021. Covid-19 mentions were coded for the influence of the disease on the research. Whilst two thirds of these articles were about biomedicine (e.g. treatments, vaccines, virology), or health services in response to Covid-19, others covered the pandemic economy, society, safety, or education. In addition, some articles were not about the pandemic but stated that Covid-19 had increased or decreased the value of the reported research or changed the context in which it was conducted. The findings relate only to Covid-19 influences declared in published journal articles. Research managers and funders should consider whether their current procedures are effective in supporting researchers to address the evolving demands of pandemic societies, particularly in terms of timeliness. The results show that although health research dominates the academic response to Covid-19, it is more widely disrupting academic research with new demands and challenges. © 2021 Sciendo. All rights reserved.