COVID-19 Research in India and Changing Scholarly Publishing Paradigm

1. COVID-19 Research in India and Changing
Scholarly Publishing Paradigm
Vasantha Raju N.
Librarian, GFGC-Talakadu
@vasanthraju
Presented through Google Meet (Webinar) for NSH Sir WhatsApp
Research Group on 21 June 2020

2. Presentation Focus
Part-1
▸ Indian Publications on COVID-19
Part-2
▸ COVID-19 and Changing Scholarly Publishing Paradigm
(emphasis on preprint servers)
2

3. Introduction
▸ In the late December in 2019, an unknown-origin pneumonia outbreak was reported from Wuhan city
of China
▸ It was taxonomically termed as SARS-CoV-2 and WHO named this novel coronavirus as COVID-19
The infectivity or spread of the outbreak is such that WHO on January 11, 2020 declared this as the public
health emergency of international concern and called it a global pandemic on March 2020
▸ It has caused unprecedented health and socio-economic crisis across the world. More than 200
countries have been affected by this virus
3

4. 4
▸ Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/worldwide-graphs/
▸ https://www.mohfw.gov.in/ , 20 June 2020

5. Introduction
▸ Since there is no vaccine or drugs existing for treating this virus, there is an
upsurge in research publications which are crucial for mitigating the spread of
the disease.
▸ There were some bibliometric studies assessing the world research
contributions to COVID-19 (Dehghanbanadaki et al, 2020; Hossain, 2020;
Nasab, & Rahim, 2020)
▸ Since India is also affecting by this infectious disease what research is being
done on this subject, which institutions are being involved, on what subject
Indians are publishing COVID-19 research etc., were looked at through this
study 5

6. Data Collections and Methods
Data Source: WHO COVID-19 Database
Keywords, abstract, subject search string was used retrieved the
documents on Indian COVID-19 Publications
Number of Documents Retrieved for Indian Publications : 106
After excluding few repeatable titles and non-English documents 89
documents were considered for final data analysis
Time Frame: May 12, 2020
6

7. 7
https://search.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/

8. Results of the Study

9. 9
Date-Wise Indian Publications on COVID-19

10. 10
Author Name Institutional Affiliations Number of
Publications
% of 89
Gupta, Nivedita Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of
Medical Research, New Delhi, India
06 6.74
Bhatnagar, Tarun National Institute of Epidemiology-ICMR, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India 04 4.49
Gangakhedkar, Raman
R.
Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of
Medical Research, New Delhi, India
04 4.49
Giri, Sidhartha Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of
Medical Research, New Delhi, India
04 4.49
Misra, Anoop Fortis CDOC Hospital for Diabetes and Allied Sciences, New Delhi,
India
04 4.49
Potdar, Varsh National Institute of Virology-ICMR, Pune, Maharashtra, India 04 4.49
Yadav, Pragya D. National Institute of Virology-ICMR, Pune, Maharashtra, India 04 4.49
Abraham, Priya Electron Microscopy & ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune,
Maharashtra, India
03 3.37
Basu, Atanu Maximum Containment Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of
Virology, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
03 3.37
Choudhary, Manohar
Lal
Bioinformatics & Data Management Group, ICMR-National Institute
of Virology, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
03 3.37
Murhekar, Manoj V. National Institute of Epidemiology-ICMR, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. 03 3.37
Nyayanit, Dimpal A. Maximum Containment Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of
Virology, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
03 3.37
Shete-Aich, Anita Maximum Containment Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of
Virology, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
03 3.37
Author(s) with Three or More Publication on COVID-19

11. 11
Authors Publications Collaborative Network on COVID-19
 Cluster-1 (Green)
This cluster authors have all largely
associated with ICMR, New Delhi
 Cluster-2 (Red)
This cluster authors are from National
Institute of Virology, Pune
 Need to collaborate with other
institutions

12. State-Wise Publications Pattern on COVID-19 based on the Corresponding
Author Affiliations
12
 In Northern India, Delhi, Punjab and
smaller state like Chandigarh has
performed better.
 BIMARU states like Madhya Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh have published only one
article each, Bihar has not published
even a single paper . These states are
largest in terms of their population.
 No research publications on COVID-19
have appeared from North Eastern
region
 It is right time to increase the research
output and have better healthcare
facilities across India, instead situating
in few pockets.

13. 13
▸AIIMS and ICMR both are guiding Govt. of Indian in mitigating the spread of the virus
▸Fortis CDOC, New Delhi is the only outlier in the chart as private institution and others are government institutions
Most Prolific Indian Institutions on COVID-19 Research

14. 14
SL No. Journal Name Publisher Number of
Publications
% of 89 Journal
CiteScore*
1 Indian Journal of Medical Research Wolters Kluwer -
Medknow
14 15.73 1.09
2 Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical
Research & Reviews
Elsevier BV 06 6.74 2.08
3 Science of the Total Environment Elsevier BV 06 6.74 5.92
4 Indian Journal of Ophthalmology Wolters Kluwer Health 04 4.49 0.81
5 International Journal of Research in
Pharmaceutical Sciences
JK Welfare &
Pharmascope
Foundation
03 3.37 0.21
6 VirusDisease Springer India 03 3.37 0.97
7 Asian Journal of Psychiatry Elsevier BV 02 2.25 1.29
8 C&EN Global Enterprise ACS Publications 02 2.25 -
9 Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology Cambridge University
Press
02 2.25 2.09
10 Medical Journal Armed Forces India Elsevier India 02 2.25 0.55
11 Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease Page Press Publications 02 2.25 0.53
12 JMIR Public Health & Surveillance JMIR Publications Inc 02 2.25 -
13 The Lancet The Lancet Publishing
Group
02 2.25 10.28
Top Journals in Which Indian COVID-19 Research Appeared Frequently

15. 15
Research Area and Document Type of COVID-19
Publications

16. 16
Hierarchical Tree Map of Frequency of Keywords on COVID-19

17. 17
 Cluster 1:
Coronavirus, covid-19, diabetes, diabetes
mellitus, hydroxychloroquine, lockdown,
stress, teleconsultations, telemedicine
 Cluster 2:
Airport screening, coronavirus disease 2019,
epidemic, mers-cov, novel coronavirus,
quarantine, severe acute respiratory,
transmission
 Cluster 3:
2019-ncov, corona, coronavirus, eye,
guidelines, ophthalmology, sars,
 Cluster 4:
Bats, India, next generation sequencing,
sars-cov-2, social distancing
 Cluster 5:
Infection, outbreak, public health,
surveillance
 Cluster-6:
 Covid-19, neurosurgery, orthopedics
Co-occurrence of Keywords on COVID-19

18. 18
Top Five Highly Cited Indian Publications on COVID-19
Cited Documents Corresponding Author Journal Name Year
of Publication
Number of
Citations
Received*
Journal
h-index
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 with
or without diabetes: A systematic search and a narrative review with a
special reference to India and other developing countries.
Singh, A.K. Diabetes & Metabolic
Syndrome: Clinical
Research & Reviews
2020 28 25
Prudent public health intervention strategies to control the coronavirus
disease 2019 transmission in India: A mathematical model-based
approach.
Bhatnagar, T. India Journal of Medical
Research
2020 28 75
Fear of COVID 2019: First suicidal case in India! Goyal, K. Asian Journal of
Psychiatry
2020 28 24
Full-genome sequences of the first two SARS-CoV-2 viruses from India. Cherian, S.S. Indian Journal of Medical
Research
2020 18 75
Telemedicine for diabetes care in India during COVID19 pandemic and
national lockdown period: Guidelines for physicians.
Misra, A. Diabetes & Metabolic
Syndrome: Clinical
Research & Reviews
2020 09 25
Lopinavir/ritonavir combination therapy amongst symptomatic
coronavirus disease 2019 patients in India: Protocol for restricted
public health emergency use.
Murhekar, M.V Indian Journal of Medical
Research
2020 09 75
Estimation of effects of nationwide lockdown for containing
coronavirus infection on worsening of glycosylated haemoglobin and
increase in diabetes-related complications: A simulation model using
multivariate regression analysis.
Ghosal, S. Diabetes & Metabolic
Syndrome: Clinical
Research & Reviews
2020 06 25
Healthcare impact of COVID-19 epidemic in India: A stochastic
mathematical model.
Shankar, S. Medical Journal Armed
Forces India
2020 05 16

19. Research Findings
▸ Indian Publications have come from largely from ICMR & AIIMS, PGIMER and other
ICMR institutes
▸ Central and State Universities which are in large numbers in India and they should
accelerate their research capabilities at this time of global health crisis.
▸ There is a need of robust medical infrastructure in BIMARU states and North-Eastern
regions
▸ Indian research is largely done in the area of epidemiology and its impact on diabetes,
cardio patients, environmental impact and pandemic outbreak, less studies on clinical
prognosis, pharmaceutical interventions, and laboratory based studies or virology related
studies on SARS-CoV-2
▸ More evidence based research is the need of the hour
19

20. Research Limitations
▸ Very small data sample size (89 records). Preprints were not indexed
▸ WHO COVID-19 database? (WoS, Scopus, Dimensions, Crossref, LitCovid,
Pubmed, Semantic Scholar CORD-19 dataset)
20Source: Pathak, 2020

21. PART-2
COVID-19 and Scholarly Publishing Paradigm

22. 22
COVID-19 has created a global health crisis across the world.
Researchers have been trying hard to find vaccine or drugs
for this virus and so as research articles is also getting
published in large numbers
Researchers are surpassing traditional publishing models
and posting their manuscripts in preprint servers for rapid
dissemination of their research results
This trend is disrupting the traditional publishing model and
making research more open to scientists and general public
during pandemic

23. 23
Main Source of Information for COVID-19 Related
Research
Source: https://app.dimensions.ai/

24. “
A preprint is a version of a scientific manuscript
posted on a public server prior to formal peer
review. As soon as it’s posted, your preprint
becomes a permanent part of the scientific
record, citable with its own unique DOI.
24

25. 25
Examples of Preprint Servers
Source :https://kuleuvenblogt.be/2020/04/01/we-need-to-talk-about-preprints-how-not-to-deal-with-media/

26. 26
Source: https://plos.org/open-science/preprints/
Benefits of Preprint Servers

27. 27
Source: https://plos.org/open-science/preprints/

28. Can article posted as preprint can be submitted to a
peer reviewed Journals?
Yes!
the same work posted as preprint can also be submitted
for peer reviewed journal.
DIRECT TRANSFER FROM MEDRXIV TO JOURNALS (M2J)
ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in biology)
https://asapbio.org/preprint-servers
28

29. Benefits We Got for Our Paper after Posted in
medRxiv preprint server
29

30. 30
This journal has shown interest in
our article and it is under review for
potential publication
This happened just because we
had posted our article in medRxiv

31. Preprints are also not without Contraversy during this Pandemic
31

32. 32
The preprint surge in this time of health crisis
is altering the main spike of scholarly
communications and bringing open peer
review system to the main stream as well as
making scholarly contents to be more open
and available for all without any restrictions

33. 33
https://f1000research.com/
https://pubpeer.com/
Examples for Open Peer Review Systems

34. Thank You
?
Credit: Presentation template by SlidesCarnival