Impact of COVID-19 on Otolaryngology Literature

Abstract

Objectives/Hypothesis: To understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volume, quality, and impact of otolaryngology publications. Study Design: Retrospective analysis. Methods: Fifteen of the top peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals were queried on PubMed for COVID and non-COVID-related articles from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021 (pandemic period) and pre-COVID articles from the year prior. Information on total number of submissions and rate of acceptance were collected from seven top-ranked journals. Results: Our PubMed query returned 759 COVID articles, 4,885 non-COVID articles, and 4,200 pre-COVID articles, corresponding to a 34% increase in otolaryngology publications during the pandemic period. Meta-analysis/reviews and miscellaneous publication types made up a larger portion of COVID publications than that of non-COVID and pre-COVID publications. Compared to pre-COVID articles, citations per article 120 days after publication and Altmetric Attention Score were higher in both COVID articles (citations/article: 2.75 ± 0.45, P