Massive covidization and subsequent decovidization of the scientific literature involved 2 million authors

Objectives

We aimed to examine the growth trajectory and impact of COVID-19-related papers in the scientific literature and how the scientific workforce engaged in this work.

Study Design and Setting

We used Scopus data to August 1, 2024, and a search string for COVID-19-related publications. Authors of COVID-19 work were mapped against databases of top-cited authors.

Results

Scopus indexed 718,660 COVID-19-related publications. As the proportion of all indexed scientific publications, COVID-19-related publications peaked in September 2021 (4.7%) remained at 4.3%–4.6% for another year and then gradually declined but was still 1.9% in July 2024. COVID-19-related publications included 1,978,612 unique authors: 1,127,215 authors had ≥5 full papers in their career and 53,418 authors were in the top 2% of their scientific subfield. Authors with >10%, >30%, and >50% of their total career citations attributed to COVID-19-related publications were 376,942, 201,702, and 125,523, respectively. As of August 1, 2024, 65 of the top 100 most cited papers published in 2020 were COVID-19-related, declining to 24/100, 19/100, 7/100, and 5/100 for the most cited papers published in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively. Across 174 scientific subfields, 132 had ≥10% of their active influential (top 2% by composite citation indicator) authors publish something on COVID-19 during 2020–2024. Among the 300 authors with highest composite citation indicator specifically for their COVID-19-related publications, 41 were editors or journalists or columnists.

Conclusion

COVID-19 massively engaged the scientific workforce in unprecedented ways. As the pandemic ended, there has been a sharp decline in the overall volume and high impact of newly published COVID-19-related publications.

Plain Language Summary

We evaluated Scopus, a bibliometric database, for the increase and waning of the COVID-19 scientific literature. Until August 1, 2024, we identified 718,660 COVID-19-related publications indexed in Scopus that had involved 1,978,612 unique authors. The rise and subsequent decline pattern of COVID-19 publications was similar to other previous epidemics like Zika, Ebola, and H1N1, but at a far larger, unprecedented scale. 125,523 authors had >50% of their total career citations attributed to COVID-19 papers. 132/174 scientific subfields had at least one of every 10 of their top-cited authors publish something on COVID-19 during 2020–2024. Many influential authors were editors or journalists or columnists. Overall, COVID-19 massively engaged a huge number of authors and created a vast literature. As the interest has now sharply declined, one needs to examine what this immense COVID-19 scientific workforce will do in the future.