The Contributions of the Scientists across the Globe in the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background: The COVID-19 disease, which was declared pandemic by WHO on the 11th of March 2020, has affected more than 200 countries worldwide and adversely affected whole areas of life. Aim: Our aim in this study is to investigate whether scientists in countries with low mortality rates and a higher reported number of COVID-19 cases among OECD countries sufficiently share their scientific knowledge. Methodology: A literature search was conducted with the keywords, "COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, Coronavirus" in scientific databases such as PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and Medline to find the number of published articles conducted by scientists in OECD countries between the period 01 March 2020 to 01 July 2020. To define the number of academic population of the countries, the number of residents in tertiary education levels of OECD countries was obtained from the educational attainment of 25-64 year-olds report published on the OECD website. Results: In regards to the countries with the lowest fatality rates, India (n1578), Australia (n1097), and Korea (n876) are the top three countries that have contributed to the scientific literature with the most published studies on COVID-19 issue. Conclusions: Concerning the current scientific data, about 2,000 papers regarding COVID-19 disease have been registered in the PubMed database since the early beginning of this year. The number of scientific publications is not consistent with the rate of tertiary education levels. Besides, the number of observed cases, and the data-sharing policies of the countries are determinants of the number of scientific publications.