Marked Escalation in Journal Submissions During COVID-19 Pandemic.

To the Editor:

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (ie, coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) has caused rapid and significant reorganization of daily routines, as well as the ways we deliver emergency care. The pandemic has forced cancellation of local, national, and international academic meetings and conferences. Both the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (emergency medicine research society) and Pediatric Academic Society (pediatric research organization with the largest pediatric emergency medicine presence) were forced to cancel their 2020 in-person meetings. Simultaneously, research institutions halted patient enrollment in clinical studies in the emergency department. The effect of these unprecedented changes on academic productivity has not yet been determined. On one hand, additional administrative and clinical demands coupled with new responsibilities such as home schooling could reduce academic output. On the other hand, time saved from cancelled national meetings and travel as well as suspended research enrollments could increase academic output.

To investigate this question, we examined trends in the number of articles submitted to Annals of Emergency Medicine before and during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure ). During the baseline period (January 2017 to February 2020), the median number of unique articles submitted each month was 189 (interquartile range 177 to 204 articles). Since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, the number of articles submitted to Annals has steadily increased: 244 in March, 401 in April, and 438 in May. During this pandemic period, 359 submissions (33.1% of all submissions) were related to COVID-19, covering both clinical and administrative issues. Given the rapid influx of articles, Annals assigned several senior decision editors to coordinate the COVID-19 article review process.

Figure

The number of articles submitted to Annals of Emergency Medicine by month. WHO, World Health Organization.

Compared with that in the baseline period, the proportion of original research submissions was lower (34.8% in the COVID-19 pandemic period versus 44.8% at baseline; difference –10.0%; 95% confidence interval –4.8% to –14.9%), but the proportion of case reports was higher (16.2% in the pandemic period versus 10.6% at baseline; difference 5.6%; 95% confidence interval 2.1% to 9.8%). However, the overall article acceptance rate was similar (6.4% in the pandemic period versus 8.0% baseline; difference –1.6%; 95% confidence interval –1.5% to 3.8%). An additional 5 submissions from May 2020 were still under peer review at the time of manuscript submission.

Despite the obvious disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have observed a substantial upsurge in the number of submissions to Annals of Emergency Medicine in the months after the World Health Organization pandemic declaration. The proportion of original research submissions decreased, whereas the number of case reports increased when compared to the past 3 years of submissions. With the resulting higher workload for journal editors and staff, a careful balance must be struck between the need for rapid dissemination of timely clinical and research findings and rigorous scientific review. Recent retractions of COVID-19 studies by both Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine highlight how complicated these processes can be. ,

As the COVID-19 case counts start to decrease, we will continue to examine longer-term trends in academic productivity for emergency physicians. We hope that the observed increases in productivity will be sustained.