{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T18:44:21Z","timestamp":1790707461758,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]],"date-time":"2020-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1592784000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]],"date-time":"2020-06-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1592784000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Med Res Methodol"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The research community reacted rapidly to the emergence of COVID-19. We aimed to assess characteristics of journal articles, preprint articles, and registered trial protocols about COVID-19 and its causal agent SARS-CoV-2.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We analyzed characteristics of journal articles with original data indexed by March 19, 2020, in World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 collection, articles published on preprint servers medRxiv and bioRxiv by April 3, 2010. Additionally, we assessed characteristics of clinical trials indexed in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) by April 7, 2020.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Among the first 2118 articles on COVID-19 published in scholarly journals, 533 (25%) contained original data. The majority was published by authors from China (75%) and funded by Chinese sponsors (75%); a quarter was published in the Chinese language. Among 312 articles that self-reported study design, the most frequent were retrospective studies (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u200988; 28%) and case reports (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u200986; 28%), analyzing patients\u2019 characteristics (38%). Median Journal Impact Factor of journals where articles were published was 5.099.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                    <jats:p>Among 1088 analyzed preprint articles, the majority came from authors affiliated in China (51%) and were funded by sources in China (46%). Less than half reported study design; the majority were modeling studies (62%), and analyzed transmission\/risk\/prevalence (43%).<\/jats:p>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Of the 927 analyzed registered trials, the majority were interventional (58%). Half were already recruiting participants. The location for the conduct of the trial in the majority was China (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u2009522; 63%). The median number of planned participants was 140 (range: 1 to 15,000,000). Registered intervention trials used highly heterogeneous primary outcomes and tested highly heterogeneous interventions; the most frequently studied interventions were hydroxychloroquine (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u200939; 7.2%) and chloroquine (\n                      <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u200916; 3%).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Early articles on COVID-19 were predominantly retrospective case reports and modeling studies. The diversity of outcomes used in intervention trial protocols indicates the urgent need for defining a core outcome set for COVID-19 research. Chinese scholars had a head start in reporting about the new disease, but publishing articles in Chinese may limit their global reach. Mapping publications with original data can help finding gaps that will help us respond better to the new public health emergency.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]],"date-time":"2020-06-22T04:02:41Z","timestamp":1592798561000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":45,"title":["Research methodology and characteristics of journal articles with original data, preprint articles and registered clinical trial protocols about COVID-19"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"20","author":[{"given":"Mahir","family":"Fidahic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Danijela","family":"Nujic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Renata","family":"Runjic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marta","family":"Civljak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Filipa","family":"Markotic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zvjezdana","family":"Lovric Makaric","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8467-6061","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Livia","family":"Puljak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"1047_CR1","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus - China. URL: https:\/\/www.who.int\/csr\/don\/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china\/en\/. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"key":"1047_CR2","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it. URL: https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\/technical-guidance\/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"key":"1047_CR3","unstructured":"Worldometer. COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. URL: https:\/\/www.worldometers.info\/coronavirus\/. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"issue":"1","key":"1047_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3325\/cmj.2020.61.1","volume":"61","author":"R Civljak","year":"2020","unstructured":"Civljak R, Markotic A, Kuzman I. The third coronavirus epidemic in the third millennium: what's next? Croat Med J. 2020;61(1):1\u20134.","journal-title":"Croat Med J"},{"key":"1047_CR5","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Database of publications on coronavirus disease (COVID-19). URL: https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"key":"1047_CR6","unstructured":"EPPI Centre. COVID-19: a living systematic map of the evidence. Available at: http:\/\/eppi.ioe.ac.uk\/cms\/Projects\/DepartmentofHealthandSocialCare\/Publishedreviews\/COVID-19Livingsystematicmapoftheevidence\/tabid\/3765\/Default.aspx. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"issue":"9","key":"1047_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"677","DOI":"10.7326\/M19-0891","volume":"171","author":"JL Jackson","year":"2019","unstructured":"Jackson JL, Kuriyama A, Anton A, Choi A, Fournier JP, Geier AK, Jacquerioz F, Kogan D, Scholcoff C, Sun R. The accuracy of Google translate for abstracting data from non-English-language trials for systematic reviews. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171(9):677\u20139.","journal-title":"Ann Intern Med"},{"key":"1047_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Chen TF, Rui J, Weng Q, Zhao Z, Cui J, Yin L: A mathematical model for simulating the transmission of Wuhan novel Coronavirus. bioRxiv 2020.01.19.911669; doi: https:\/\/doi.org\/https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.01.19.911669. 2020.","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.01.19.911669"},{"key":"1047_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Read JM, Bridgen JRE, Cummings DAT, Ho A, Jewell CP: Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions. medRxiv 2020.01.23.20018549; doi: https:\/\/doi.org\/https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.01.23.20018549. 2020.","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.01.23.20018549"},{"issue":"3","key":"1047_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"217","DOI":"10.1097\/JCMA.0000000000000270","volume":"83","author":"YC Wu","year":"2020","unstructured":"Wu YC, Chen CS, Chan YJ. The outbreak of COVID-19: an overview. Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA. 2020;83(3):217\u201320.","journal-title":"Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA"},{"key":"1047_CR11","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus - China. January 12, 2020. Available at: https:\/\/www.who.int\/csr\/don\/12-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-china\/en\/."},{"issue":"8","key":"1047_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"iii","DOI":"10.3310\/hta14080","volume":"14","author":"F Song","year":"2010","unstructured":"Song F, Parekh S, Hooper L, Loke YK, Ryder J, Sutton AJ, Hing C, Kwok CS, Pang C, Harvey I. Dissemination and publication of research findings: an updated review of related biases. Health Technol Assess. 2010;14(8):iii ix-xi, 1-193.","journal-title":"Health Technol Assess"},{"key":"1047_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Eisen MB, Akhmanova A, Behrens TE, Weigel D. Publishing in the time of COVID-19. Elife. 2020;9.","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.57162"},{"issue":"4","key":"1047_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"383","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMsr1601330","volume":"376","author":"DA Zarin","year":"2017","unstructured":"Zarin DA, Tse T, Williams RJ, Rajakannan T. Update on trial registration 11 years after the ICMJE policy was established. N Engl J Med. 2017;376(4):383\u201391.","journal-title":"N Engl J Med"},{"key":"1047_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jin X, Pang B, Zhang J, Liu Q, Yang Z, Feng J, Liu X, Zhang L, Wang B, Huang Y, et al. Core outcome set for clinical trials on coronavirus disease 2019 (COS-COVID). Engineering (Beijing). 2020.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eng.2020.03.002"},{"key":"1047_CR16","unstructured":"COMET. Core outcome set developers\u2019 response to COVID-19 (15th April 2020). Available at: http:\/\/www.comet-initiative.org\/Studies\/Details\/1538."},{"key":"1047_CR17","unstructured":"Retraction Watch. Elsevier investigating hydroxychloroquine-COVID-19 paper. Available at: https:\/\/retractionwatch.com\/2020\/04\/12\/elsevier-investigating-hydroxychloroquine-covid-19-paper\/. Accessed 18 June 2020."},{"issue":"1","key":"1047_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1186\/s12874-020-00972-6","volume":"20","author":"M Wolkewitz","year":"2020","unstructured":"Wolkewitz M, Puljak L. Methodological challenges of analysing COVID-19 data during the pandemic. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020;20(1):81.","journal-title":"BMC Med Res Methodol"},{"key":"1047_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Ruano J, Gomez F, Pieper D, Puljak L. What evidence-based medicine researchers can do to help clinicians fighting COVID-2019? J Clin Epidemiol. 2020. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jclinepi.2020.04.015.","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclinepi.2020.04.015"},{"key":"1047_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Borges do Nascimento IJ, O'Mathuna DP, von Groote TC, Abdulazeem HM, Weerasekara I, Marusic A, Puljak L, Tassoni Civile V, Zakarija-Grkovic I, Poklepovic Pericic T et al: coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic: an overview of systematic reviews. medRxiv 2020.04.16.20068213; doi: https:\/\/doi.org\/https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1101\/2020.04.16.20068213.","DOI":"10.1101\/2020.04.16.20068213"}],"container-title":["BMC Medical Research Methodology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,21]],"date-time":"2021-06-21T19:44:34Z","timestamp":1624304674000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]]},"references-count":20,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12]]}},"alternative-id":["1047"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1186\/s12874-020-01047-2","relation":{"has-preprint":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-27061\/v2","asserted-by":"object"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-27061\/v1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["1471-2288"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1471-2288","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,22]]},"assertion":[{"value":"1 May 2020","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"10 June 2020","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"22 June 2020","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Not applicable. This study did not involve human participants. We analyzed publicly available information from scholarly journals and public web sites with preprint articles and registered clinical trials.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"Livia Puljak is Section Editor of the BMC Medical Research Methodology. Other authors declare no competing interests.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"161"}}