Impact of COVID-19 on Otolaryngology Literature.

Chillakuru, Yeshwant R; Gerhard, Eleanor F; Shim, Timothy; Selesnick, Samuel H; Lustig, Lawrence R; Krouse, John H; Hanna, Ehab Y; Smith, Timothy L; Fisher, Edward W; Kerschner, Joseph E; Monfared, Ashkan

OBJECTIVE To understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volume, quality, and impact of otolaryngology publications. METHODS Fifteen of the top peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals were queried on PubMed for COVID and non-COVID related articles from April 1, 2020 - March 31, 2021 (pandemic period) and pre-COVID articles from the year prior. Information on total number of submissions and rate of acceptance were collected from seven top-ranked journals. RESULTS Our PubMed query returned 759 COVID articles, 4885 non-COVID articles, and 4200 pre-COVID articles, corresponding to a 34% increase in ENT publications during the pandemic period. Meta-analysis/reviews and miscellaneous publication types made up a larger portion of COVID publications than that of non-COVID and pre-COVID publications. Compared to pre-COVID articles, citations per article 120 days after publication and Altmetric attention score were higher in both COVID articles (citations/article: 2.75 ± 0.45, p<0.001; Altmetric attention score: 2.05 ± 0.60, p=0.001) and non-COVID articles (citations/article: 0.03 ± 0.01, p=0.002; Altmetric attention score: 0.67 ± 0.28, p=0.016). COVID manuscripts were associated with a 1.65 times higher acceptance rate compared to non-COVID papers (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS COVID-19 was associated with an increase in volume, citations, and attention for both COVID and non-COVID articles compared to pre-COVID articles. However, COVID articles were associated with lower evidence levels than non-COVID and pre-COVID articles. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.