The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on all activities of society, including biomedical publishing. Most journals (including MEDICINA CLINICA) have offered free access to all papers related to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. The number of scientific articles related to the SARS-CoV-2 infection has been and continues to be high. In an effort to determine the possible impact that the interest in publishing papers on COVID-19 may have had to the detriment of papers in other medical areas, the editorial committee of MEDICINA CLINICA has quantitatively analysed the original papers, short original papers, letters to the editor, scientific letters and review articles received in the journal during the first wave of the COVID-19 infection and compared them with those received in the same period of the previous three years.
Between April and September of 2107 to 2020, 973, 892, 877 and 1125 articles were submitted to MEDICINA CLÍNICA, respectively, with a 23% increase in the number of articles submitted in 2020 compared to the average of the previous three years. If we deduct from the year 2020 the original articles referring to COVID-19, the latter figure is reduced to 864, almost the same as those received in the last two years. When considering the analysis by type of article received, it can be seen that the percentages have not varied substantially over the years (Table 1).
Articles received between April and September of 2017 to 2020 in the different sections of the journal.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 414 (42.5%) | 441 (49.4%) | 442 (50.4%) | 610 (54.2%) | 499 |
| Letters to the Editor | 237 (24.4%) | 188 (21.1%) | 206 (23.5%) | 232 (20.6%) | 167 |
| Scientific letters | 135 (13.9%) | 97 (10.9%) | 96 10.9%) | 102 (9.1%) | 68 |
| Short original | 89 (9.1%) | 87 (9.8%) | 70 (8.0%) | 89 (7.9%) | 58 |
| Reviews | 98 (10.1%) | 79 (8.9%) | 63 (7.2%) | 92 (8.2%) | 72 |
| Total | 973 | 892 | 877 | 1125 | 864 |
This analysis demonstrates the great effort of the Spanish scientific community in research on COVID-19 infection, taking into account that the vast majority of articles submitted to MEDICINA CLÍNICA were prepared during the period of strict lockdown, and that this effort did not have a negative impact in research concerning the other biomedical areas.
Editorial Committee of Medicina Clínica
Please cite this article as: Medicina Clínica durante la pandemia COVID-19. Med Clin (Barc). 2021;156:205–205.
