Extensive research reveals assumptions not all completely realized with regard to COVID-19‘s impact on academic research and publishing. The Scholarly Kitchen brought this interesting topic to our attention in their article, “How Has COVID-19 Affected Research Funding, Publishing and Library Budgets? Or, Finding the Truth in the Gap Between Perception and Reality.“
It is no doubt that the pandemic has impacted every part of our lives – both personal and professional. Remote working became a thing that no doubt will remain with us for a while, especially after many employers realized those jobs they were sure couldn’t be done from home, were accomplished with not only satisfactory results, but were often better than ever.
The concerns over how COVID-19 impacted research and academic publishing were in part realized, but some surprising results from a variety of surveys highlight areas of positivity.
Most everyone assumed the pandemic would have completely disrupted researchers’ normal workload and workflows with the effects being long-lasting. In reality, researchers have been publishing more, not less. The reasons aren’t concrete, but many believe because researchers across many fields were unable to carry out their work as normal during 2020, they were able to spend more time writing and publishing. This could mean that a leveling out will occur post-pandemic.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
