Analysis of the scientific literature in the first 30 Days of the novel coronavirus outbreak. (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Recent events highlight how emerging and re-emerging pathogens are becoming global challenges for public health. In December 2019, a novel coronavirus has emerged. This has suddenly turned out into global health concern. Objectives: Aim of this research is to focus on the bibliometric aspects in order to measure what is published in the first 30-days of a global epidemic outbreak Methods: We searched PubMed database in order to find all relevant studies in the first 30-days from the first publication. Results: From the initial 442 identified articles, 234 were read in-extenso. The majority of papers come from China, UK and USA. 63.7% of the papers were commentaries, editorials and reported data and only 17.5% of the sources used data directly collected on the field. Topics mainly addressed were epidemiology, preparedness and generic discussion. NNR showed a reduction for both the objectives assessed from January to February. Conclusions: Diagnosis and effective preventive and therapeutic measures were the fields in which more research is still needed. The vast majority of scientific literature in the first 30-days of an epidemic outbreak is based on reported data rather than primary data. Nevertheless, the scientific statements and public health decisions rely on these data.