Over 87,000 scientific papers released on virus: Study

ANKARA

Scientists from all around the world have published more than 87,000 papers on coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic until October, a recent study published by Ohio State University showed.

"It is an astonishing number of publications – it may be unprecedented in the history of science," said Caroline Wagner, co-author of the study and associate professor in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University.

"Nearly all of the scientific community around the world turned its attention to this one issue."

Using several scientific databases to track coronavirus-related articles, the scientists found that 4,875 articles were published on the matter between January and mid-April of 2020. Then it showed a significant rise to 44,013 by mid-July and 87,515 by the start of October.

Comparing the coronavirus research with nanoscale science, Wagner said that it took more than 19 years to go from 4,000 to 90,000 scientific articles on the nanoscale.

"Coronavirus research reached that level in about five months," she added.

In a previous study published in July, the researchers found that China and the US led the world in virus research during the first months of the pandemic.

However, the new study revealed that China's contributions "dropped off significantly after infection rates in the country fell."

"From Jan. 1 to April 8, Chinese scientists were involved in 47% of all worldwide publications on coronavirus," it said. "That dropped to only 16% from July 13 to Oct. 5."