Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas?
The principle of resource allocation states that diversion of resources to attend a function may compromise others. The COVID-19 pandemic required a rapid response with a justifiable relocation of equipment, funds and human resources. Based on the ecological principle of allocation, we tested whethe...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2023-06-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/15436.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797418080724320256 |
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| author | Alejandro Farji-Brener Sabrina Amador-Vargas |
| author_facet | Alejandro Farji-Brener Sabrina Amador-Vargas |
| author_sort | Alejandro Farji-Brener |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The principle of resource allocation states that diversion of resources to attend a function may compromise others. The COVID-19 pandemic required a rapid response with a justifiable relocation of equipment, funds and human resources. Based on the ecological principle of allocation, we tested whether the relocation of resources to support COVID-19 research was more detrimental to medical research than to research in other scientific areas. We compared the yearly number of published articles from 2015 to 2021 using disease-related keywords and non-medical scientific keywords. Contrary to the expectation, we found an abrupt reduction in the publication rates in all research areas from 2019 to 2020 or 2021, compared to the pre-pandemic period (2015–2019). The allocation effect on medical research may be overshadowed by stronger effects of the pandemic, or it may become evident in the coming years. The drastic reduction in published papers could have negative consequences for scientific advancements, including understanding and curing diseases other than COVID-19 that strongly affect humanity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:28:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e5423fb093d04fb39eb285ef3f0b4710 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:28:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-e5423fb093d04fb39eb285ef3f0b47102023-12-03T11:16:38ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592023-06-0111e1543610.7717/peerj.15436Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas?Alejandro Farji-Brener0Sabrina Amador-Vargas1CRUB, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, ArgentinaSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, PanamaThe principle of resource allocation states that diversion of resources to attend a function may compromise others. The COVID-19 pandemic required a rapid response with a justifiable relocation of equipment, funds and human resources. Based on the ecological principle of allocation, we tested whether the relocation of resources to support COVID-19 research was more detrimental to medical research than to research in other scientific areas. We compared the yearly number of published articles from 2015 to 2021 using disease-related keywords and non-medical scientific keywords. Contrary to the expectation, we found an abrupt reduction in the publication rates in all research areas from 2019 to 2020 or 2021, compared to the pre-pandemic period (2015–2019). The allocation effect on medical research may be overshadowed by stronger effects of the pandemic, or it may become evident in the coming years. The drastic reduction in published papers could have negative consequences for scientific advancements, including understanding and curing diseases other than COVID-19 that strongly affect humanity.https://peerj.com/articles/15436.pdfCOVID-19Resource allocationScientific productionFunding |
| spellingShingle | Alejandro Farji-Brener Sabrina Amador-Vargas Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? PeerJ COVID-19 Resource allocation Scientific production Funding |
| title | Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? |
| title_full | Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? |
| title_fullStr | Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? |
| title_short | Collateral damage: has the COVID-19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas? |
| title_sort | collateral damage has the covid 19 pandemic more strongly impacted medical research than other scientific areas |
| topic | COVID-19 Resource allocation Scientific production Funding |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/15436.pdf |
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