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The serendipitous impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A rare opportunity for research and practice.

ABSTRACT: In this opinion paper, I argue that the Covid-19 pandemic, as tragic and disastrous as it undoubtedly is, has also given us a rare opportunity to deeply examine the research and practice of information management in particular and information systems in general. To cope with the pandemic, we have retreated to the digital world and drastically changed the way we work. Yet these very practices can well shape the way we work in the post-pandemic world. Moreover, the pandemic is also a sharp lens through which we can study deep-rooted theoretical issues that otherwise would not have surfaced, or at least remained in the background. My call to the research community is to seize this rare opportunity.

SUBMITTER: Sein MK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7261442 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The serendipitous impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A rare opportunity for research and practice.

Sein Maung Kyaw MK

International journal of information management 20200531

In this opinion paper, I argue that the Covid-19 pandemic, as tragic and disastrous as it undoubtedly is, has also given us a rare opportunity to deeply examine the research and practice of information management in particular and information systems in general. To cope with the pandemic, we have retreated to the digital world and drastically changed the way we work. Yet these very practices can well shape the way we work in the post-pandemic world. Moreover, the pandemic is also a sharp lens th ...[more]

PMID: 32836630

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Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected health systems and medical research worldwide but its impact on the global publication dynamics and non-COVID-19 research has not been measured. We hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the scientific production of non-COVID-19 research.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive meta-research on studies (original articles, research letters and case reports) published between 01/01/2019 and 01/01/2021 in 10 high-impact medical and infectious disease journals (New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nature Medicine, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Public Health, Lancet Infectious Disease and Clinical Infectious Disease). For each publication, we recorded publication date, publication type, number of authors, whether the publication was related to COVID-19, whether the publication was based on a case series, and the number of patients included in the study if the publication was based on a case report or a case series. We estimated the publication dynamics with a locally estimated scatterplot smoothing method. A Natural Language Processing algorithm was designed to calculate the number of authors for each publication. We simulated the number of non-COVID-19 studies that could have been published during the pandemic by extrapolating the publication dynamics of 2019 to 2020, and comparing the expected number to the observed number of studies.ResultsAmong the 22,525 studies assessed, 6319 met the inclusion criteria, of which 1022 (16.2%) were related to COVID-19 research. A dramatic increase in the number of publications in general journals was observed from February to April 2020 from a weekly median number of publications of 4.0 (IQR: 2.8-5.5) to 19.5 (IQR: 15.8-24.8) (p < 0.001), followed afterwards by a pattern of stability with a weekly median number of publications of 10.0 (IQR: 6.0-14.0) until December 2020 (p = 0.045 in comparison with April). Two prototypical editorial strategies were found: 1) journals that maintained the volume of non-COVID-19 publications while integrating COVID-19 research and thus increased their overall scientific production, and 2) journals that decreased the volume of non-COVID-19 publications while integrating COVID-19 publications. We estimated using simulation models that the COVID pandemic was associated with a 18% decrease in the production of non-COVID-19 research. We also found a significant change of the publication type in COVID-19 research as compared with non-COVID-19 research illustrated by a decrease in the number of original articles, (47.9% in COVID-19 publications vs 71.3% in non-COVID-19 publications, p < 0.001). Last, COVID-19 publications showed a higher number of authors, especially for case reports with a median of 9.0 authors (IQR: 6.0-13.0) in COVID-19 publications, compared to a median of 4.0 authors (IQR: 3.0-6.0) in non-COVID-19 publications (p < 0.001).ConclusionIn this meta-research gathering publications from high-impact medical journals, we have shown that the dramatic rise in COVID-19 publications was accompanied by a substantial decrease of non-COVID-19 research. META-RESEARCH REGISTRATION: https://osf.io/9vtzp/ .

Project description:This paper considers how the pandemic-related concert-free time affected musicians' practice, specifically in relation to technique. A semi-structured interview was carried out on 22 musicians based in Switzerland (11 males, 11 females; 7 students, 15 non-students; 11 with school-aged children, 11 without school-aged children; 16 with teaching duties and 6 non-teachers). The amount of practice during the pandemic-related concert-free time was reported as different to usual by 91% and usual for only 9% of participants (p = 0.002). Forty-one percent of participants reported reduced, and 41% "fluctuating" amounts of practice. The proportion of practice time spent on technique was reported by 55% of participants to have increased and by only 9% to have decreased (p = 0.019). Of those who reported an increase in technique practice, 75% agreed this had a positive impact on technique, and only 8% disagreed (p = 0.037). Moreover, 58% considered this work to have changed their current and future practice. Participants were statistically more likely to report "never" watching online tutorials than "often" (p = 0.014), but, of those that did watch such material, 75% agreed that it had a positive impact upon their practice. Most participants created digital content during this period; only 5% produced no such material. An increased use of digital tools was reported by 55% of participants, 92% of whom described this as having a positive effect upon practice and only 8% were unsure (p = 0.022). However, in the unstructured discussion, the use of digital tools appears to be associated with mixed outcomes. Men reported significantly more frequent use of digital tools (91% vs. 45% describing this use as often, p = 0.038) and spent a larger proportion of time on technique relative to their pre-pandemic habits than women (p = 0.065); moreover, a trend indicated that more women than men created digital content in the form of tutorials (p = 0.095). The exceptional situation musicians experienced during the pandemic, which introduced new aspects to musical instrument practice, and accelerated changes already underway, could lead to future work that improves practice under "normal" conditions, and exposes discrepancies between certain demographic groups.

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The serendipitous impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A rare opportunity for research and practice.

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The serendipitous impact of COVID-19 pandemic: A rare opportunity for research and practice.

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