International collaboration during the COVID-19 crisis: autumn 2020 developments

Area of Science:

• Virology
• Epidemiology
• Bibliometrics

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted global scientific research.
• Pre-pandemic coronavirus research established baseline collaboration and publication trends.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze international collaboration patterns in COVID-19 research.
• To compare COVID-19 research collaboration with pre-pandemic coronavirus research.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric analysis of scientific publications on coronaviruses.
• Tracking international collaboration networks and publication output.
• Correlating research output with national infection rates.

Main Results:

• COVID-19 research exhibits aberrant international collaboration patterns compared to pre-pandemic studies.
• Nations with higher infection rates produced more publications, with output linked to caseloads.
• COVID-19 research involved fewer nations and smaller teams, a trend that intensified over time.
• The United States was the largest global contributor, while China's contribution decreased as its caseload dropped.
• China-USA collaborations declined, potentially due to publication rates or political factors.

Conclusions:

• COVID-19 research collaboration dynamics differ significantly from previous coronavirus research.
• National caseloads and geopolitical factors appear to influence international research collaborations during pandemics.